NEO RAUCH JUXTAPOZ.COM 81eo Rauch once expanded a
variation on Descartes famous
meditation and said, “I dream
therefore I am.” In an era where
thinking is often outsourced to
computers, dreaming is an activity intrinsically
human. Dreams can magically leave us feeling
simultaneously connected to universes of time—
present, past, and future. Neo Rauch’s work
stands before us like a portal that links our era
with all of its Postmodern confusion back to a
time when fairy tales served as plausible short
stories. With feet firmly rooted in his native
Saxony, Rauch engages an ethereal undercurrent
of symbol and storytelling.Neo Rauch has often said that his overall mission
is to re-enchant the world and take off where
the Romantics left off. In reading many of his
previous interviews, one gets the sense that
Rauch engages a spectrum of pre-Enlightenment
and Romantic occult wisdom. He mentions the
Akasha, bursts of pantheism, time continuum,
and Caspar David Friedrich’s Monk by the Sea as
representing the awareness of one’s placement
within a grand design.Allowing hypnagogic visions to guide his foray
into new compositions, Rauch works mostly in
stream-of-consciousness with no preliminary
drawing. Flowing from his trance state, thepainting takes on a life of its own. Rauch spoon-
feeds his creature-like creations from brushes held
by large, clumsy-looking gardening gloves with
paint he mixes on the floor in containers before
his canvases. He keeps a schedule like a factory
worker: 9 AM–7 PM, five days a week, working
on three to five large canvases at a time. On the
weekend he lets the paint dry, takes a break
from the studio, and spends time with his family
working in his garden.For three decades, Rauch’s efforts have resulted
in his own distinct world populated by humans
and humanoid subjects that he refers to as his
paintings’ personnel. These characters interactN
Above: Duo, Oil on canvas, 11.75” x 15.75”, 2014