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Neo Rauch at the Met: para

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Neo Rauch (German, born 1960). Jagdzimmer (Hunter's room), 2007. Courtesy Galerie EIGEN + ART Leipzig/Berlin & David Zwirner, New York. © 2007 Neo Rauch/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn. Photo: Uwe Walter.

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Exhibition Images

Neo Rauch (born 1960) creates paintings that teeter between Surrealism and popular imagery, defying easy interpretation. Viewers are drawn into scenes replete with strange beings and ambiguous landscapes. Full of activity yet mysteriously static in feeling, Rauch's paintings are fantasy painted as fact, and many of his large-format works are populated by figures that are connected spatially, yet remain alienated and unaware of each other. With a distinctive palette of bright acidic colors contrasting with deep shadows, the artist's paintings conjure up an atmosphere of confused nostalgia and failed utopias.

The artist is inspired by misplaced memories and momentary perceptions that are lost before they can be named. In this vein, Rauch has titled his exhibition at the Met para. Although there are many familiar elements in the parallel world of Rauch's paintings, the situations depicted are bizarre and the normal is mixed freely with the abnormal.

Born and raised in Leipzig, East Germany, Neo Rauch trained at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst in that city. He continues to live and work in Leipzig and has inspired a younger generation of painters in the city's thriving artistic community. Rauch's work has been featured in solo exhibitions at Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany (2006); Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, Canada (2006); Albertina, Vienna, Austria (2004); Saint Louis Art Museum (2003); and Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin, Germany (2001), among other museums.

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Exhibition Organizers

"Neo Rauch at the Met: para" is organized by Gary Tinterow, Engelhard Curator in Charge of the Metropolitan's Department of Nineteenth-Century, Modern, and Contemporary Art. After its presentation at the Met, the exhibition will travel to the Max Ernst Museum, Brühl, Germany (October 28, 2007–March 30, 2008).

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Related Publication

A related publication (Cologne, Germany: DuMont publishers) features essays by Gary Tinterow and Werner Spies, as well as excerpts of writings on Rauch's work and interviews with the artist dating from 1997 to 2007. The 114-page book includes 40 color illustrations and all texts in both English and German. The book is available in The Met Store.

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