Durch Rauch gesehen - Galerie EIGEN+ART

Gary Tinterow
Seeing through Smoke 5
Werner Spies
In the Prohibited Zone of Happiness 7
Gary Tinterow
Durch Rauch gesehen 11
Werner Spies
Im Sperrgebiet des Glücks 13
Plates / Abbildungen 17
Selected Texts 51
Textauswahl 81
Biography / Biografie 113
Gary Tinterow
Engelhard Curator
in Charge of
the Metropolitan’s
Department of
Nineteenth -Century,
Modern and
Contemporary Art
Gary Tinterow
Seeing through Smoke
The third exhibition in our series devoted to artists at mid-career,
“Neo Rauch at the Met: para” follows exhibitions by Tony Oursler (2005)
and Kara Walker (2006). Although Neo Rauch, like Oursler and Walker,
is frequently exhibited in New York and well known here and abroad, none of
these artists’ works were previously shown at the Metropolitan. Indeed,
until 1968, Museum policy excluded one- person exhibitions of the work of
living artists. In a city that could boast of the Museum of Modern Art, the
Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum,
it hardly seemed necessary to devote space and resources to art that was
so well represented nearby. Under the direction of Philippe de Montebello,
however, the Metropolitan has, over the last thirty years, dedicated an
entire wing to twentieth-century art, provided galleries for photography,
and, since 2004, undertaken a lively program in which the art of our time is
featured indoors and out : the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden
has recently exhibited works by Joel Shapiro, Andy Goldsworthy, Sol LeWitt,
Cai Guo- Qiang, and Frank Stella. These projects reflect a broader mandate
to bring new artists and audiences into our precinct.
Neo Rauch was one of the first to spring to mind for our new series.
In the overheated contemporary art scene in New York, where the difficulty
is not in finding artists of interest but rather in finding an interesting artist
who has not been overexposed, Rauch, whose art defies definition as
readily as it defies characterization, remains a compelling figure. His mind-
twisting visual conundrums, in which figures repeat Sisyphean tasks in
nostalgic environments evocative of failed utopias, continue to engage the mind
and delight the eye. Self-described as a “conservative” and sometimes
“romantic” artist, Rauch has witnessed his art being likened to Surrealism,
Social Realism, and Pop Art and compared to the paintings of Mark Tansey,
Sandro Chia, and Georg Baselitz. Rauch, however, is by no means a
savvy interpreter of the contemporary scene who has developed a style guaranteed
to succeed through association with figures of the near and distant
past. Instead, his art is uniquely his own because it springs from his dreams.
No doubt his dreams have been shaped by experience — real and imaginary —
of the past and the present. But unlike the Surrealists Salvador Dalí or
René Magritte, Rauch does not aim to shock the bourgeoisie or to give form
to sexual fantasy — perhaps because the art - viewing public has become
immensely jaded and only a few taboos remain. As Rauch recently said, “I have
no use for the cultishness of classic Surrealism or for its tight repertoire of
methods. In fact just the opposite is true : on my canvas, as in my mind, anything
is possible.” Instead, Rauch, by adopting a similar strategy, approaches
the sensibility of his Surrealist compatriot Max Ernst.
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