Saratonin:art:blog

Neo Rauch
May 12th – June 21, 2008
David Zwirner Gallery
525 West 19th Street, New York, NY

“Ambiguous and sometimes menacing, the stories [Rauch's] paintings tell are retro-futuristic fantasies of a world at once strange and eerily familiar, recognizable not from experience but perhaps from dreams (Carnegie International).”

What I loved about these paintings was the absolute confusion of styles and content. At first glance I thought they were brightly colored realist paintings. Upon further inspection, I noticed that many of the characters looked like they were from the 1950’s, and that many of them were acting out very odd scenes. Slowly I began realizing the extent of the idiosyncrasies in perspective, and almost Dali-like surreal qualities of some of the pieces. I was thoroughly confused as to what was going on, and I loved it. The paintings were realistic, cartoonish, surreal, dark, and comical all at the same time; and they seemed to reference every art movement recorded in history.

According to the press release, Rauch does not rely on existing imagery or preconceived notions for his paintings. The paintings unfold themselves on the canvas, inspired by dreams and experiences, and structured from the artist’s fascination with the figure, work related props, and the properties of paint itself.