Neo Rauch
The Obsession of the Demiurge:
Selected Works 1993-2012
First major exhibition in Belgium of internationally
acclaimed German painter Neo Rauch.
Neo
Rauch, Rauch, 2005, Privatsammlung, courtesy Galerie EIGEN + ART Leipzig/Berlin und David
Zwirner, New York/London - Photo:
Uwe Walter, Berlin
You
are cordially invited on
19
February 2013 at 10am
to the press conference for the opening of
Neo
Rauch
The Obsession of the Demiurge
Selected
Works 1993–2012
20.02
> 19.05.2013
In
the presence of
the
artist Neo
Rauch,
the
curator Harald
Kunde
and
director Gerd
Harry Lybke from
EIGEN+ART Gallery.
For
interviews,
please contact leen.daems@bozar.be.
Scenario
9:45
– Welcome
10:00
– Start guided tour of the exhibition
11:00
– Press conference with Q&A
12:00
– Reception and free visit to the exhibition
BOZAR
– Centre for Fine Arts
Entrance: Rue Ravensteinstraat 23, 1000 Brussels
Thank
you for confirming your presence by mail to leen.daems@bozar.be
Influenced
by surrealism, pop art, and comic strips, as well as by his own youth and training in the old East Germany, Neo Rauch's figurative paintings have been described as riddles without solutions. Rauch, who still lives and works in Leipzig, has had a meteoric rise
to fame and his impressive paintings can now be found in the collections of major international museums.
Showcasing the work of Neo Rauch reflects
BOZAR’s interest in making European and international art more widely accessible to its public and in focusing on Europe's shared historical and cultural development. Despite his international fame, Rauch's work has not been widely accessible in this part
of Europe. In 2010 the Belgian painter and curator Luc Tuymans selected some of Rauch's work for a group exhibition in Bruges,
Luc
Tuymans: A Vision of Central Europe. The BOZAR exhibition now sets out to introduce and present the work of this major contemporary German artist to the Belgian public at large.
Neo
Rauch: The Obsession of the Demiurge includes works from throughout
Rauch's career, from 1993 to 2012. As well as numerous paintings, it also includes a number of drawings. In total it contains about
70 works, on loan from
38 different collections, including the
Essl Museum (Vienna), the Pinakothek der
Moderne (Munich), the Fondation
Beyeler (Switzerland), and the Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam). The exhibition is
curated by Harald Kunde, Director of the Museum
Kurhaus in Kleve, Germany.
Influences
Born 1960 in Leipzig, Neo Rauch grew up
in Aschersleben in the former East Germany (German Democratic Republic). He trained at Leipzig's
Hochschule für
Grafik und Buchkunst, where he later taught. Although some see echoes of the
old official socialist realism in his work of the mid 1990s, he recalls that
Beckmann, Dix, and Kokoschka were key models when he was a student. An earlier formative experience was the discovery on his grandfather's bookshelves,
at the age of twelve, of a volume containing reproductions of the work of
Salvador
Dalí. The fall of the Berlin Wall and German reunification, when he was still a student, exposed him to the influence of
Western art and
pop
culture.
Rauch had his first one-man show in 1993
and made his international breakthrough at the Armory Show in NYC in 1999. Since then he has exhibited in major museums and galleries in Germany and abroad, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the
Zachęta
National Gallery of Art in Warsaw, the Albertina in Vienna, the
Museo
de Arte in São Paulo,
and the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich. The exhibition at the Centre for Fine Arts will be the
first-ever major exhibition devoted to his work in Belgium.
Painting
makes a comeback
Around the time of German reunification, and well into the 1990s, painting – and figurative painting even more so – was out of fashion. Since then, however, Rauch has been instrumental in creating a shift in emphasis in the art world. His success has also helped
to pave the way for the emergence of the painters of the "New Leipzig School".
Rauch's paintings, which in recent years
have become more complex and monumental in scale, contain dramatic, theatrical elements with an air of mystery. His large-scale paintings draw the
viewer into intriguing, mesmerising scenes. Dream-like at times, they often contain an extensive cast of characters and hybrid creatures engaged in
activities for which there is no obvious explanation. While the action is occasionally violent, there is an air of detachment that discourages identification or empathy with individual figures. Realistic rural landscapes and architecture, rooted in Rauch's
own region, form a backdrop for figures that are often dressed in early 19th-century costume or in clothing associated with industrial workers. As a result, echoes of historical events and of the history of art, including German Romanticism, are
mixed with modern historical and cultural references, creating puzzling scenes that cannot be attributed to a particular time and whose significance is difficult to fathom. Rauch has stated that dreams have an important influence on his imagery.
Curator:
Harald Kunde
In
collaboration with: Galerie EIGEN+Art Berlin, Leipzig
Support:
Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany, Embassy of Germany in Brussels
Partner:
Mobull
Visitor information
Neo Rauch
The Obsession of the Demiurge:
Selected
Works 1993–2012
Address
BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts
Rue
Ravensteinstraat 23
1000 Brussels
Dates
20 February to 19 May 2013
Opening
hours
Tuesdays to Sundays, 10 am > 6 pm
Thursdays, 10 am > 9 pm
Closed on Mondays
Tickets
€ 10: Neo Rauch
€ 14: Neo Rauch + Antoine Watteau
€ 18: Neo Rauch + Antoine Watteau + Changing
States
Catalogue
“Neo
Rauch”
208 pp., 31 x
23 cm, 90 ills.
Hardcover
Dutch
- French (Ludion & BOZAR BOOKS)
English
- German (Hatje Cantz & BOZAR BOOKS)
BOZAR Info & tickets
+32 2 507 82 00 -
info@bozar.be
– www.bozar.be
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