Exhibition Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig April 18 – August 15, 2010 Neo Rauch Paintings Foreword travelers yet to be identified, or supporters, but they could an evolution in the artist’s work that was formulated with Rauch supported the exhibition and publication with great also be less identifiable feelings, positive or negative, guard- great mastery. We are sincerely grateful to all of them. Such sensitivity from the outset. His personal contribution of ian angels, or recurring nightmares of a life-path that, in the an exhibition project could not be realized without the publishing two lithographs especially for the exhibition Born in Leipzig in 1960, Neo Rauch is undoubtedly the meantime, has covered fifty years. help of third parties. In this case, we have to thank, above venues deserves our utmost appreciation. We are therefore most internationally significant and most discussed German A total of 120 paintings are on view in Leipzig and Munich. all, the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe: for the support of the extremely grateful to the artist and his wife Rosa Loy. painter of his generation. His paintings are like a theatrum Selected in close cooperation with Neo Rauch, the works exhibition in Leipzig, we are grateful to the Ostdeutsche mundi, overlapping scenes that gradually lend a sur real are taken from a period that began around twenty years Sparkassenstiftung together with the Sparkasse Leipzig; for aura to their formal verism and their narrative. Following ago. Many of the paintings, some of which are large-format the sponsorship of the exhibition in Munich, we are in- Hans-Werner Schmidt the political changes of 1989 and the ensuing great socio- works, have never been shown before in Germany. Strong debted to the Bayerische Sparkassenstiftung, the Kultur- director, Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig political upheavals in East Germany, Neo Rauch primarily demand led to a paradoxical situation in which the paint- fonds of the Deutsche Sparkassen- und Giroverband, as produced images of the rebuilding of the landscape and the ings ended up in private hands almost as soon as they were well as the Sparkasse München. Their combined generous Klaus Schrenk dismantling of an economy that, until then, had been kept finished in the studio. Both parts of the exhibition deliber- commitment made it possible to implement these two ex- general director, Bayerische Staatsgemälde- alive artificially. Shortly thereafter, his focus shifted to re- ately dispense with a strict chronological order for the hibitions. Our gratitude also goes out to VNG — Verbund- sammlungen, Munich searchers, artists, and paramilitary-looking service person- works. Rather, they are subdivided according to “atmos- netz Gas AG as well as to the associations of supporters of nel. Whereas his work until the late nineteen-nineties was pheric” aspects, which enable the characteristic, oft recur- both the Förderer des Museums der bildenden Künste oriented around aspects of drawing, thereafter, the charac- ring themes, motifs, and artistic conceptions to emerge all Leipzig and PIN: Freunde der Pinakothek der Moderne for teristic style of his painting and a more markedly colorful the more clearly. their active support. palette gained the upper hand. Moreover, Rauch expanded Neo Rauch first appeared before the public in a large ex- Bernhart Schwenk in Munich initiated the project and was the personnel of his paintings — dispersed English-landed hibition in 1997. At the time, he received a prize from the responsible for curating it. Simone Kober was responsible, nobility; Biedermeier aesthetes; activists equipped for an Leipziger Volkszeitung, which, together with the Museum der in close cooperation with Claudia Klugmann in Leipzig, expedition through somnambulistic worlds in which ac- bildenden Künste Leipzig, had organized his “personal ex- for transportation and insurance. Jörg Dittmer and Sylva tions and spaces merge. Ultimately, it remains obscure hibition.” Neo Rauch’s biography as an artist is charac - Dörfer conceived the publicity campaign and marketing which goals the figures pursue, and we can see them as teristic of those associated with the Academy of Visual in Leipzig, which was handled in Munich by Tine Nehler be ing closely related to robotic beings or toy figurines. Arts Leipzig. Like Bernhard Heisig, Werner Tübke, Sighard and her colleagues. Dietmar Stegemann and his team in Rauch’s works belong to the tradition of the Leipzig School, Gille, Arno Rink, and many others before him, he was Munich, and Torsten Cech and his team in Leipzig handled at whose center Bernhard Heisig and Arno Rink were ac- active at this academy as a student, assistant lecturer, and the installation of the exhibition at the respective venue. tive for two generations. It abandons classical iconography professor. His oeuvre is rooted in a tradition practiced there Conservation was in the capable hands of Rüdiger Beck for subjective forms, and leads viewers via the trail of the of the storyteller and arranger of myths with a distinct mas- and his team in Leipzig as well as those of Irene Glanzer narrative into the field of the mysterious, where they have tery of the craft. The end of his teaching activity in 2009 and Kerstin Luber in Munich. Steffi Klopsch and Robert to watch out for their own signposts to find their way has therefore been interpreted, not without reason, as a Kirchmaier directed the administrative activities of this through the interlocking pictorial zones. caesura, and as the end of a historical chapter in his educa- anything but ordinary cooperative project. As representa- Neo Rauch’s unmistakably, individual painting stands in tion and career as a teacher. tives of all those who contributed to the project, we owe a line of art historical tradition for which Titian, Tintoretto, The first large retrospective of Neo Rauch’s works was them our thanks. and El Greco can be named as precedents. The artist him- held exactly ten years ago and it was also organized in a The present bibliophile exhibition catalogue documents self has identified Beckmann, Bacon, Beuys, and Baselitz as close collaboration between Leipzig and Munich. Back both parts of the exhibition and supplements their selec- modern points of reference. Neo Rauch’s oeuvre reflects then, it was the Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst in Leipzig tion of works with additional illustrations. We are grateful the complex moods of our time, an age in which an intense that cooperated with the Haus der Kunst in Munich as part to Annette Kulenkampff of Hatje Cantz Verlag for her com- self-confidence with regard to what is doable encounters a of an exhibition tour. Thus, Neo Rauch is not unknown to mitment to this book as publisher. In collaboration with her deep uncertainty in difficult global circumstances, where the public in Munich. A few years later, shortly after the team, Maria Magdalena Koehn, a reliable partner in dia- euphoria over and disgust with the media describe a schizo- Pinakothek der Moderne opened, Rauch was also shown logue with Neo Rauch regarding all questions of aesthetic phrenic picture, and where fear of terror and catastrophe there, in a dialogue with the sculptor Manfred Pernice, who communication, produced an extraordinary design for the feed a need for security and contemplation. was almost exactly the same age. At around the same time, book. Descriptions of the works by art historians, critics, The Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich and the Museum PIN: Freunde der Pinakothek der Moderne, acquired the and fellow artists, such as Michaël Borremans, Hartwig der bildenden Künste in Leipzig are dedicating a compre- first Neo Rauch painting for the museum.Wahl, a work Ebersbach, Jonathan Meese, and Luc Tuymans, provide hensive retrospective exhibition to Neo Rauch that will be from 1998, is the symbol of the current exhibition for the very exceptional access to this oeuvre. The essay by Uwe shown in both venues simultaneously. The particular form Munich portion of the show whereas Leipzig is advertising Tellkamp, written especially for this occasion, offers a unique this cooperation has taken is an expression of the artist’s art with a coronation scene it purchased in 2008, which is be- approach to this oeuvre. We are deeply indebted to all who historical significance. Neo Rauch calls this projectBegleiter ing shown here publicly for the first time. contributed to the success of this publication. (Companions), and this exhibition title is as open as the Without the many lenders to this show, many of whom are To Gerd Harry Lybke and his team from the Galerie title of his paintings. Begleiter — the word can signify com- private parties, it would not have been possible to offer Eigen + Art, Leipzig / Berlin, we would like to express our piled personality types, certain historical witnesses, fellow such a comprehensive, multifaceted survey that reveals thanks for coming to our aid on numerous occasions. Neo 4 / 5 other media.” 1 These expeditions in the transitional zones “I don’t fit in your system, between the unconscious and the conscious are borne but you fit in mine” in Neo Rauch’ s works by a strong self-assertiveness — one that approaches reactions to these expeditions offensively, one that inserts the adversary, as it were, into the picto- Dreams and memories are resources of artistic produc- rial staging and direction. The following remarks explore tion interwoven with a pronounced density of subjectivity. this. Having slipped into images, they remain instances of reas- The medium of painting, which is like an elixir of life for surance for the artist; they testify to a primal impulse and Neo Rauch, is a recurrent theme in the artist’s work. He is the step-by-step working out of those particles of the image interested in both the genesis of paintings as well as their that determine memory, both fleeting and over time, and public reputation within a context that, today, is thought to that need to be fixed in juxtaposition in the course of self- be described, most aptly, as the “operating system art.” reassurance (Selbstvergewisserung).