Neo Rauch The Signpost at DAVID ZWIRNER

[@AI-xs4fp]

Bless you for those closeups. Great commentary.

[@aublancd]

thanks for your visit !!! please go on go on ;);) !!!!!

[@selwynr]

His works are pictorially spectacular and unfailingly interesting in their enigmatic tableaux, yet I haven't once had an emotional reaction to them. Nothing seems to be of any consequence, so an emotional flatness is their final effect on me, as much as I enjoy their wonderful strangeness. This doesn't feel deliberate, rather a consequence of a pervasive and hard-baked cynical satirical 'vibe'. He never paints human beings, they are ciphers - every thing is mock and a complete lack of psychological depth or interiority is what prevents his work being truly great. The greatest figurative painters are without fail psychologically intense but then... they were people of great depth and humanity. Rauch has immense gifts but it remains to be seen if he can evolve imaginative empathy and psychological realism (not pictorial) to make art that touches us on a human level. I wish him luck. If he does, he will be an artistic force to be reckoned with.

[@MikeWitmerNatureJournal]

Are you reacting to images or the actual paintings? Unless you are standing in front of the paintings you cannot fully experience them.

[@selwynr]

@@MikeWitmerNatureJournal I've seen about 15 of his whopper-sized paintings but not this show, but it doesn't look like there's any change in his sensibility whatsoever. I admire his work, it's thrilling, strange, enigmatic and spectacular, but I do not love it. I feel no love, no human tenderness or compassion in it at all, technically or psychologically. I do in all the great painters I love.

[@nimblenimbus]

Interesting point.

[@antondavidovic3996]

​@@selwynr Fair enough, but care to name any painters that give you that emotional gratification? I'm genuinely interested because I'm always on the lookout for recommendations. I feel a similar way about Neo's paintings, there is something missing that I can't put my finger on. Its like not enough salt in a meal, or like a joke with a weak punch-line. It remains at the level of "Oh look, some pretty cool figurative compositions"...

[@darrinheaton4016]

@@antondavidovic3996 I think she's talking about painters such as Balthus , Beckmann, or Otto Dix...or Lucien Freud?

[@hlavaavalh8373]

Enjoyed this video. Thx and greetz from München.

[@italogiardina8183]

Possible Hegalian influences appear as chimeras within the zeitgeist.

[@JohnBrown-be6re]

I concur

[@sydneygreenstreet9767]

Thanks again from Christchurch, New Zealand

[@conradbo1]

Thanks Kate for letting James Kalm make the video. Neo Rauch seems to be a very good and interesting artist. I love how thick the paint is on some parts of the paintings. Regards Conrad Bo Superblur from Johannesburg South Africa

[@LiquidArtEnergyProductions]

House of Der Kunst! (22:06 delicious streaks of Turquoise!) ZITCHIN! Thank you James...and Kate!

[@lawcheukyui]

Thank you for the video, James.

[@michellesantoro3360]

Love your work James, thanks again for bringing New York exhibitions home to me in Sydney..

[@artbyty]

Thanks James and Kate!

[@morganrussell6335]

Loved this, thank you Kate!

[@MikeWitmerNatureJournal]

One of the better living painters. Such a unique palette like weathered toy blocks or antique postcards.

[@anatoos240]

That's a lovely way to describe his use of color, can't say I agree he's one of the best though.

[@charlywalter2195]

Er hats drauf der neo rauch glückwunsch - 😊 - einer der neue Mythen erzählt und fachlich gekonnt kalligraphiert

[@sesvaoffice8331]

being a well trained academic painter has so many benefits, it give artists more scope for creation - having an additional set of tools to employ to make art. but many art schools have abandoned teaching these skills.

[@JohnHoganArtist]

I am a naturally born artist, Art school didnt teach me any painterly skills I just knew how to accomplish it

[@lovepeace3041]

THANK YOU KATE

[@revrevreviews]

I played table tennis with Neo once in Berlin. It's a long story and I imagine no one would be interested in it. Thanks for a wonderful guide, James! I feel like I was there with you.

[@eriknieminen]

well I imagine you didn't bring it up if you didn't want to talk about it. Go on.

[@tonsfocus]

Nice quixotic spoken-word ska band at the top, in the as-it-was-always-thus doleful Cooper Union Square! James' latest Rauch show review is simply tip top! So many fetching pearls of wisdom, so many wonderful accounts of art history, personal or otherwise. I have a 2002 catalog (PDF) of his work titled "Bonnefantenmuseum" by Hatje Cantz, and it shows many dozens of his first career-phase works. They are more pop, flat, and graphic. I've always much preferred those to his later more theatrical, somber, 18th-century-ish classical works, replete with mucky shadows and finicky detailing. In this show, it almost feels like he's shifting back a little to that earlier breeziness. Thank you so very much James, this video did not disappoint! Thank you, and thanks be to Frau Kate!

[@jameswarhol442]

Ska? More punk-funk rap fusion.

[@tonsfocus]

@@jameswarhol442 That sounds more accurate - I defer to your better categorization. :-)

[@kimwilkie9819]

Thanks Kate!

[@barbarajohnson1442]

He's my contemporary GOLDEN BOOK of Dream Drawing master! They are such illustrations of mysteries, thanks for this,James, and for the Wickids ! Why do I think of Max Beckman, the archetypal rituals I guess?

[@TD-qi2rw]

I always LOVE your reporting ! Thanks Kate !

[@danielkunkel3630]

Mr. Kalm- Could you do a review of the "On The Bowery" show please? There are a couple of really nice Loren Munk paintings in there you need to see!

[@jameskalm]

Yes, I've had many requests to cover that show, and I've heard the Munk paintings are fantastic...(hehehehe)...

[@danielkunkel3630]

@@jameskalm Lol...Actually they are very cool...

[@meltdowngrfx969]

Thanks for the review. Wished there was some insight into the imagery Rauch uses.

[@eriknieminen]

There isn't, though. It's all very enigmatic. Almost impossible to penetrate.

[@reaganwiles_art]

For years I had thought neo rauch to be a category of painting, no shit! I did not know it was a person's name. Hahahaha

[@darrinheaton4016]

haha!

[@barbarajohnson1442]

You know, Odd Nerdrum talked a lot about Kitsch

[@danielkunkel3630]

So: Stir together a Balthus and an Immendorff and you get a...well, a painting that is not quite as good as either. Hell yes these must have been fun to paint, but what about us? Neo: The lane you are in has already been spoken for. Let's push your considerable painterly talents further next time- you can't (or shouldn't) stop on an occupied space...Thank you James, thank you Kate!

[@eriknieminen]

he does get a bit repetitive at times, but I don't think he cares. He has a huge market, yes... but also seems cerebral beyond that.

[@TD-qi2rw]

maybe I need a new monitor......

[@thegraciecat1]

Wow jk. u are showing an artist with technical skills......thanks so much!

[@kyhxx]

. nice ^

[@TD-qi2rw]

almost looks similar to David Salle...............

[@nuritdavid3348]

He was so exciting in the end of the 90s but now his paintings seem to be so dry and contrived, or rather tired.There is nothing more boring than the routine of the extraordinary . Thank you anyway . On the other hand I love his anti PC interviews .

[@katemetten5468]

I am very impressed by Neo's paint handling and imagery, but am noticing that all his figures are white... seems somewhat out of date in that sense.

[@eriknieminen]

maybe he doesn't want to get into the whole racial debate. Imagine he suddenly puts a person of colour into his painting now... it changes everything, it becomes solely about that, in today's climate. He may be interested in other things.

[@danielkunkel3630]

Not out of date at all. It is your focus on skin color (which is the definition of racism) that went out of fashion decades ago. Move on.

[@johnlegrand5127]

Maybe he's a white guy within a predominantly white culture ever think of that?

[@jimhresco1728]

Wow Kate! Really?!

[@Cam2Art]

The biblical portraiture, postures and crucifix reference are anachronistic, where would you hang these paintings, maybe in a barn with the cows and hay,

[@jamesthompson8778]

Rap is whack....boring...