Widely celebrated as one of the most influential figurative painters working today, 

 (b. 1960) is known for richly colored and elaborate paintings that contain a repertoire of invented characters, settings, objects, and motifs. At once realistic and familiar, enigmatic and inscrutable, his paintings often hint at broader narratives and histories—seemingly reconnecting with the artistic traditions of realism—yet they are dreamlike and frequently contain disparate and overlapping spaces and forms.

Rauch was born in Leipzig, where he continues to live and work, and studied at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst. Rauch has been represented by David Zwirner since his first show with the gallery in New York in 2000. The solo exhibition 

, was presented at David Zwirner, Hong Kong, in 2023. In 2019, 

 was exhibited at the gallery’s Hong Kong location, marking the artist’s first solo presentation in China, and 

 was presented in 2016 at the gallery’s London location. Previous solo exhibitions at the gallery in New York include 

Rauch's work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at prominent institutions internationally. In 2023, his solo exhibition 

 was presented at MoCo Montpellier Contemporain, France. In 2022–2023, 

, an exhibition of his works on paper, was shown at the Drents Museum, Assen, and 

 was on view at Museum de Fundatie, Zwolle, both in the Netherlands. 

 was on view at the Palazzo Pitti, Florence, in 2019–2020. 

 was presented in 2018–2019 at Des Moines Art Center, Iowa, and traveled to The Drawing Center, New York. 

 was presented at Museum de Fundatie, Zwolle, the Netherlands, in 2018. In 2013, BOZAR – Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels presented a solo show of the artist’s work entitled 

Neo Rauch: The Obsession of the Demiurge. Selected Works 1993–2012

 and in 2010 his first major museum survey was cohosted by the Museum der Bildenden Künste Leipzig and the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich. A version of this survey was shown at the Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, in 2011.

Other venues which have presented solo exhibitions include the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz, Germany (2012); Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden, Germany (2011); Essl Museum, Klosterneuburg, Austria (2011); The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2007); Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague (2007); Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (2006); Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany (2006); Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga, Spain (2005); Albertina, Vienna (2004); and the Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, the Netherlands (2002).

In 2012, the Grafikstiftung Neo Rauch opened in Aschersleben, Germany, where the artist was raised. The foundation is dedicated to maintaining and preserving Rauch's entire graphic oeuvre. In celebration of its ten-year anniversary, the Grafikstiftung Neo Rauch opened an exhibition of Rauch’s prints made since 1988, which is on view through April 28, 2024.

Institutional collections that hold works by the artist include the Albertina Museum, Vienna; Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, the Netherlands; The Broad, Los Angeles; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Denver Museum of Art; the Des Moines Art Center, Iowa; Fondation Beyeler, Basel; Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence; Gemeentemuseum, the Hague; Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin; Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum der Bildenden Künste Leipzig; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar, the Netherlands; National Gallery of Ottawa, Canada; Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich; San Francisco Museum of Art; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Space K, Seoul; and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, among others.

Portrait of Neo Rauch, 2023. Photo by Uwe Walter.

Daniel Kehlmann is a German novelist, essayist, and playwright. His literary works have won the Candide Prize, Heimito von Doderer Literature Prize, Kleist Prize, Thomas Mann Prize, and the Welt Literature Prize. His novel 

 (2007) has been translated into forty languages.

Daniel Kehlmann

 from David Zwirner Books features new work by a leading contemporary artist. Available in both English-only and bilingual English/traditional Chinese editions, this series makes the work of these important artists accessible to a wider audience.

Spotlight Series

One of the most influential figurative painters of his generation, Neo Rauch presents bold, new work in 

Rauch is widely celebrated for his captivating compositions that bring together figurative painting and surrealism into an entirely new kind of visual encounter. They often hint at broader narratives and histories—seemingly reconnecting with artistic traditions of realism—but they remain dreamlike and impossible to reduce to a single story. Though his art is highly refined and executed with great technical skill, Rauch himself stresses the intuitive, deeply personal nature of how he works. As the artist notes, “My process is far less a reflection than it is drawing from the sediments of my past, which occurs in an almost trance-like state.”

Eight large-scale canvases and seven smaller, more intimately scaled works continue the artist’s exploration of figuration and the ambiguous nature of meaning in visual art. In some of the larger works, the saturation of the canvas with characters, objects, and forms, all rendered at different scales and in conflicting arrangements, creates a collage-like quality—a figurative scrapbook of Rauch’s personal iconography.

The publication features a short story by German novelist and playwright Daniel Kehlmann, which was inspired by the paintings in this book. The fantastical text moves between present-day New York and an unknown time of enchanted forests, knights, and witches, exploring the many layers found in Rauch’s canvases. Published on the occasion of the artist’s solo exhibition at David Zwirner Hong Kong in 2019, 

Neo Rauch: PROPAGANDA

Neo Rauch: PROPAGANDA | Books

David Zwirner is an art gallery with locations in New York, Los Angeles, London, Paris and Hong Kong. We present physical and online exhibitions, podcasts, books, and more.