About Neo Rauch

Neo Rauch is inextricably linked to the Neue Leipziger Schule, in which figuration and surrealism come together. A hybrid creature, half man, half animal, dressed in a uniform, trudges forward, his gaze fixed on the horizon. He carries two jerry cans in his hands. He looks reserved. Resigned perhaps or determined, as if he knows what he must do. The sculpture is called Nachhut, rear guard. Are we looking at a soldier who covers the retreat of his fleeing compatriots, running from impending disaster, from the enemy? Is he using the petrol he carries to set fire to the abandoned houses, scorched earth so that nothing useful remains for the pursuing enemy? Nachhut is one of the few sculptures by Neo Rauch and ARTZUID has the scoop in the Netherlands. Neo Rauch (Leipzig 1960) is best known as a painter. The sculpture exudes the same alienating atmosphere as his paintings: a figure from an indeterminate time, between history and fiction. The monumental bronze gives it weight, a seriousness that you do not immediately understand. As with Rauch’s paintings, the meaning remains open: an image that feels like a fragment from a larger story – but which story?