Neo Rauch
Comrades & Companions
Displayed again and again in the paintings of Neo Rauch are comical dream sequences and nightmarish scenarios. There is much darkness, little hopefulness, and little joy. Weird tableaux, indecipherable fragments of human activities, are superimposed and juxtaposed, but no hint is offered as to how the various motifs relate to one another. The paintings of this Leipzig artist are idiosyncratic, bewildering, yet they exercise an inescapable fascination for viewers. But does this explain his worldwide success? Why do collectors in Israel, Korea, Russia, and the US purchase his works?
Neo Rauch is one of the most successful painters of his generation. To a large extent, his subjects are conditioned by his biography, by the images he saw during his childhood in the GDR. Central to his work is the notion of homeland, a preoccupation with history and with histories. Backdrops formed by past events are a stimulus to the painting process. Neo Rauch was born in Leipzig, and has never left his hometown. What is a home/homeland, and what is concealed by the forces that have shaped us?
The film "Neo Rauch - Gefährten und Begleiter" (Neo Rauch - Companions and Supporters) revolves around the artist’s pictorial universe. The documentary goes in search of the aura of this internationally acclaimed oeuvre. Using a range of sources and personal testimony, viewers get close to the people who have had the most contact with Neo Rauch’s paintings, and with the artist and the man. We also hear from international collectors from Korea, Israel, and the US, as well as the artist's personal associates. Here are the individuals who have supported Rauch in his work, whether by building frames, producing catalog prints, or photographing his paintings.
"Neo Rauch - Gefährten und Begleiter" (Neo Rauch - Companions and Supporters) is a film about homeland, fidelity, devotion, and loyalty. The production strives to unlock this painter’s secrets by examining his works and by considering the people, landscapes, buildings, atmospheres, and events that have touched him.
worldwide distribution, , DVD: Weltkino
Leipzig
Deutschland
www.weltkino.de
Screenplay/Direction
Nicola Graef
Produced:
2016,
ARTE/MDR
100 min.
back to selection
