Neo Rauch at the Met: Para August 6, 2007

On view are new paintings made specifically for this exhibition by the Leipzig artist Neo Rauch, one of the most widely acclaimed painters of his generation. Shaped by the experience of growing up in East Germany, Rauch's paintings teeter between Surrealism and popular imagery and defy easy interpretation. Viewers are drawn into scenes replete with historical figures in ambiguous landscapes. With a distinctive palette of bright acidic colors contrasting with deep shadows, the artist's paintings conjure up an atmosphere of confused nostalgia and failed utopias.