I am a fan of Neo Rauch, the wawaweewah German painter who has landed in the center of the art scene. I stumbled upon his work at The Metropolitan a year or so ago when I saw a solo show he had emerging artist. I love the way he's dealing with the mash up of time on his canvas as if it were a mind running through the tangled loops of our lives.
For Rauch, the creative process can be plagued with expectations, restrictions, and limitations – practical and theoretical, external and self-imposed – provoking a tension that pervades every aspect of the works. This tension is epitomized by the gripping Parabel, 2008. Amidst a discordant industrial landscape, an artist falls before his blank canvas, his neck tethered by a noose. The feelings of paralyzation, depression, fear, and vulnerability that characterize the creative process, and ultimately human existence, are presented honestly, dramatically, and poetically.
I tell myself the key for that paralyzing parable moment is to breathe, breathe, breathe....but I guess when it's a noose around the neck, what's the answer? When you see Rauch's large paintings with their swirls of rich colors and colliding forms, and implosion of time and events and action...they give you a full suck in breath of life and a flash of brilliance in your mind. a frontal aha moment that implores you to get moving, keep the flow going, let the color douse the dark side, and good things will result.
I expect a lot from this guy, because he's figured out a way to deal with all these peskey expectations, restrictions, and limitations...just paint like a romaniac.
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