Exhibition
Neo Rauch – Works from 2008 to 2019
organized by the Uffizi Galleries together with the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut, the Gallery EIGEN+ART of Leipzig/Berlin and the David Zwirner Gallery of New York
Neo Rauch, Spannung (detail), 2016, oil on canvas, 250 x 200 cm
Neo Rauch, born in Leipzig in 1960, is one of Germany's most renowned painters and amongst the most influential artists of his generation. Following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and the reunification of Germany, Rauch established an artistic practice that expresses the demontage of the political ideology of the past through a mixture of figurative, abstract, and surrealistic forms.
Rauch studied at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst in Leipzig, where renowned East German artists Bernhard Heisig, Werner Tübke and Arno Rink, among others, had studied and taught. His work is rooted in the tradition of this Academy, famous for its rigorous instruction in painting. His critically acclaimed 1997 solo exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Leipzig was a major breakthrough for the artist.
Today, the works of Neo Rauch are exhibited widely around the world. The exhibition at the Uffizi Galleries is the artist's first major exhibition in Italy, where the selection of works on display will expose Italian audiences to advanced German figurative painting today. The exhibition presents thirty-seven paintings that the artist created in part with the rooms of the Andito degli Angiolini – a historical place with wonderful views of the Boboli Garden housed within the prestigious context of Palazzo Pitti – in mind.
On the occasion of this exhibition the artist has generously donated an exquisite self-portrait to the Museum, which will remain on permanent view at the Uffizi Galleries, becoming part of the museum's historical collection of self-portraits that began with the self-portrait of Raphael in the 16th Century.
A deep scientific analysis of Neo Rauch's works is presented in an original catalogue, published by Giunti Editore, conceived as an innovative work to understand the paintings of Neo Rauch and his creativity.
Exhibition and catalogue edited by Max Seidel and Serena Calamai.
Catalogue
Max Seidel e Serena Calamai (a cura di), Neo Rauch – Opere dal 2008 al 2019, Firenze, Giunti Editore, 2019.
17 October 2019 – 12 January 2020
Uffizi Galleries – Palazzo Pitti
Andito degli Angiolini
Piazza dei Pitti, 1
50125 Firenze
