Neo Rauch

With high-contrast palettes featuring vibrant, acidic tones and darker, more ominous hues, Neo Rauch paints alternate universes where anxiety and unpredictability prevail. Rauch’s style evokes the compositions of Old Masters, Social Realists, and Surrealists including Giorgio de Chirico and René Magritte. The artist often renders ambiguous human characters, scenes of labor, strange symbols, and hybrid creatures—his compositions always defy simple narrative resolution. Rauch grew up in East Germany, and his off-kilter landscapes suggest the unease of life under the shadow of the Cold War. Rauch has enjoyed solo shows at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Des Moines Art Center, the Albertina in Vienna, the Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montréal, and the BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels. In 2001, he featured at the Venice Biennale. Rauch’s work has sold for more than $1 million at auction.