Neo Rauch

David Zwirner Gallery, New York

Private Collection, New York (acquired from the above in 2002)

Christie’s New York, 15 November 2017, lot 863 (consigned by the above)

Acquired from the above by the present owner

M. Sun, "Modern German Master-Neo Rauch," Artslant, April 2010, n.p., illustrated

"Neo Rauch-eine Kritische Würdigung zum Geburtstag des Malers," Weltkunst, vol. 80, no. 5, 2010, p. 46

“Devoid of figures, [Acker] shows a vast tilled, sharply receding field and evokes Anselm Kiefer, Caspar David Friedrich and Courbet. As the eye moves towards a distant greensward, it is stopped midway by a line of four leafless, undernourished trees, which seem stranded in a trench. It is a lush, haunting picture, a view of no-man’s land that points towards a happy ending” (Robert Smith, Art in Review: Neo Rauch, The New York Times, 26 April 2002).

One of the most notable artists of the New Leipzig School, Neo Rauch is also one of the more diverse members of the group, deviating his practice from the more recognizable themes of his peers. Raised in communist East Germany, Neo Rauch did not adhere to the mandated style of socialist realism but rather was inspired by the figurative landscapes of German romanticism as well as elements of surrealism. The influences of artists like Giorgio de Chirico can be seen in his haunting scenes that elicit a contradictory feeling as though one is viewing a world from the past yet one that is seemingly post-apocalyptic. These familiar, yet unidentifiable scenes are the production of Neo Rauch’s mind as he paints in a dreamlike state, detached from reality. While other New Leipzig School painters like Gerhard Richter avoided figurative painting as they tried to distance themselves from its communist associations, Neo Rauch embraces figuration and strives to escape from conscious thought in creating his compositions. The artist tries to capture the way in which dreams feel as though they exist in reality, yet something about each element produced feels inconsistent with the real world.  

The present work, Acker, speaks directly to the characteristics of the artist’s oeuvre. Existing in several planes, allowing the viewer to perceive that he or she is traveling through time, this composition integrates contradicting artistic styles. This mirage-like scene first draws the viewer’s eye to the sharp, desolate crimson rocks at the foreground, alluding to a potentially inhabitable world. Fascinated with the delicacy of the human condition, Neo Rauch places perishing trees in the landscape that remain standing despite their ravaged surroundings, a display of tenacity amongst what has unconsciously occurred. The landscape in the distance is less defined and speaks to a more traditional scene of rolling hills and a calming blue sky. The secluded house is the only thing amongst this hazy image that implies that this environment might be habitable. This paradoxical work, with a more appealing and distant landscape but vibrant, yet desolate ground, evokes a world that seems as though it is recognizable but pulls together an image from the depth of Neo Rauch’s self consciousness.