David Zwirner is pleased to announce Field Signs, an exhibition of new paintings by German artist Neo Rauch at its Hong Kong location. This presentation follows the artist’s 2021 solo exhibition The Signpost at David Zwirner New York and marks his second solo show at the Hong Kong gallery, after his 2019 exhibition Propaganda. Rauch’s work was recently the subject of the 2023 solo exhibition The Dream of Reason at MoCo Montpellier Contemporain, France, and Neo Rauch: Die Mitte, which was on view at Museum de Fundatie, Zwolle, the Netherlands, in 2022.

Widely celebrated as one of the most influential figurative painters working today, Rauch has gained international acclaim 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. As writer Thomas Meaney notes, “Rauch is known for … huge, dense, ostensibly narrative scenes in which narrative is stubbornly elusive. Events seem to take place in a parallel world. Portions of a canvas can be futuristic, with space-age infrastructure, while elsewhere there may be a sky out of Tiepolo and people who have come from the Napoleonic Wars or some primordial Europe.” Though his art is highly refined and executed with considerable 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.”2

The namesake of the exhibition, Feldzeichen (2023), translated as “field signs,” is a large painting that features the titular objects—in particular, examples from ancient Rome—which traditionally serve as emblems for organizing military units and demarcating plots and territories by farmers or soldiers. However, in Rauch’s composition the narrative is more ambiguous: human figures of varying scale and dress engage in perplexing configurations in an interior scene. A woman and a man clad in yellow seemingly argue on the right-hand side of the canvas as a tiny fire burns in the rural landscape behind them. The same iron sign reappears in Sonne (2023), being wielded by a bearded figure who stands under rays of sunlight and among a series of pylons, and again in Trift (2023)—meaning “drift” or alternatively “grazing pasture”—in which the placards are utilized as different kinds of instruments. These retro-futurist objects become motifs in the artist’s paintings, an example of how forms, figures, and even certain stylistic flourishes exist as personal iconography that Rauch frequently draws upon and reincorporates into his work.

In Reue (2023), which is translated as “regret” or “remorse,” a man and a woman in the foreground wearing traditional German dress witness the burning of a house of cards in the clearing of a forest, against a flaming red-orange sky. Rauch includes colorful butterflies and moths in Spießer and in Die Nachtfalterin (both 2023), symbols that he has returned to repeatedly since the 2010s. In Spießer their delicate bodies are stacked neatly on top of each other on poles, while in Die Nachtfalterin a large, winged insect is scrutinized by a group of characters that resemble figures painted by French realist artist Gustave Courbet. In Rauch’s words, “I always do my best to understand what the motives for [these symbolic elements’] inclusion in the painting are.… They make a case for the limitless nature of pictorial possibilities—to be honest, I can paint whatever I want; I just have to make sure that it’s right for me.”3 Like other paintings in Field Signs, these highly personal compositions exemplify tensions and ambiguities between the past and Rauch’s experiences of the present day while synthesizing the history of art and representation more broadly.


Neo Rauch (b. 1960) 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. His 2019 solo exhibition Propaganda at the gallery’s Hong Kong location marked the artist’s first solo presentation in China, and Neo Rauch: Rondo was presented in 2016 at the gallery’s London location. Previous solo exhibitions at the gallery in New York include The Signpost (2021), At the Well (2014), Heilstätten (2011), Neo Rauch (2008), Renegaten (2005), Neo Rauch (2002), and the aforementioned Neo Rauch (2000).

Rauch's work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at prominent institutions internationally. In 2023, his solo exhibition The Dream of Reason was presented at MoCo Montpellier Contemporain, France. In 2022–2023, Neo Rauch: Wegzehr, an exhibition of his works on paper, was shown at the Drents Museum, Assen, and Neo Rauch: Die Mitte was on view at Museum de Fundatie, Zwolle, both in the Netherlands. Neo Rauch – Works from 2008 to 2019 was on view at the Palazzo Pitti, Florence, in 2019–2020. Neo Rauch: Aus dem Boden was presented in 2018–2019 at Des Moines Art Center, Iowa, and traveled to The Drawing Center, New York. Neo Rauch: Dromos, Painting 1993–2017 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.

 

1 Thomas Meaney, “Neo Rauch’s Antagonistic Art,” The New Yorker (September 27, 2021), accessed online.

2 Neo Rauch in an interview with Ena Swansea, Neo Rauch: Aus dem Boden/From the Floor. Exh. cat. (New York: The Drawing Center, 2018), p. 28.

3 Rauch in an interview with Hélène Trespeuch, “Timeless, Evocative, and Singular,” in Neo Rauch: The Dream of Reason. Exh. cat. (Paris: Bernard Chauveau Édition; Montpellier, France: MoCo Montpellier Contemporain, 2023), p. xiii.




For all press inquiries, contact:
Victoria Kung vkung@davidzwirner.com

 

尼奧·勞赫《地標》
2023年11月16日至2024年2月24日
香港| 中環皇后大道中80號
H Queen’s 5-6樓

卓納畫廊欣然於香港空間呈現德國藝術家尼奧勞赫的全新繪畫作品展《地標》。 不久前的2021年,勞赫在位於紐約的卓納畫廊呈現了個展《路標》,而這次將是他2019年的展覽《宣傳》之後第二次舉辦於畫廊香港空間的個展。 此外,2023年,勞赫在法國MoCo蒙佩利耶當代藝術館舉行了個展《理性之夢》,2022年,在荷蘭茲沃勒(Zwolle)的視覺藝術博物館舉辦了個展《尼奧·勞赫 :中間》。

勞赫被認為是今天最具影響力的具象畫家之一,以其色彩豐富、精巧細膩的繪畫在國際上廣獲讚譽,他的作品裡包含了一系列奇思妙想的角色、場景、物件與主題。 他的繪畫既寫實而似曾相識,又是神秘且高深莫測的,它們常常暗示著更開闊的敘述及歷史——似乎與現實主義相關的藝術史傳統重新建立起聯結——然而,它們又如夢如幻,並且常常飽含著各不相同但又相互交疊的空間與形式。 正如作家托馬斯·米尼(Thomas Meaney)所說,「勞赫以其……巨大的、密集的、表面上敘事性的場景著稱,但敘事在其中極其的難以捉摸。事件似乎發生在一個平行宇宙 中。畫面的一部分可以是未來主義的,帶著外太空時代的基礎設施,但同時畫面的其他部分又可能是提耶波羅(Tiepolo)的天空,而人物則出自拿破崙戰爭或是原始歐洲的時期。」1 儘管他的藝術有著精湛和深思熟慮的創作技法,但勞赫本人更強調作品中直觀且極度個人化的特質。 如藝術家所說:「我的創作過程並不全然是反觀,更多的是對自己過往沉積事物進行的汲取,它以一種近乎
恍惚出神的狀態發生着。」2

與展覽同名的作品《地標》(Feldzeichen,2023)是一幅描繪了標題所示的各種地標的大尺幅繪畫——更確切地說,有不少出自古羅馬的地標示例——傳統上 ,它們是農民或戰士用來組織軍事單位、分割地塊和領地的標誌。 不過,在勞赫的構圖裡,敘事更為模稜兩可:在一幕室內的場景中,各種比例不同、著裝各異的人物產生了令人費解的組合。 畫面右側,似乎有一個女人和身穿黃色衣服的男人在爭吵,而他們身後的那片鄉村風景中正有一團微小的火苗在燃燒。 作品《太陽》(Sonne,2023)也出現了相同的鐵質標牌,一個大鬍子的人物揮舞著地標站在陽光之下以及一片高聳的指示塔中,而在《漂移》(Trift,2023)— —這個德語單字也有「牧場」之意——同樣地,數塊標誌被用作各種不同的工具。 這些「復古未來主義」的物件成為了藝術家這一系列繪畫中的母題,也是一個絕佳的示例,體現了形態、人物、甚至某些風格性的裝飾是如何作為個人的圖像學而存在的 ,而勞赫經常汲取這一圖像學並重新融入自己的作品。

在作品《悔過》(Reue,2023)中,前景中的一男一女身著德國傳統服裝,他們在橘紅色火光的映照下,目睹森林空地上的一座紙牌屋正在被燒毀。 勞赫在《串刺者》(2023)和《夜行雌蛾》(2023)中都描繪了蝴蝶與蛾,這是他自2010年代以來反覆回歸的重要意象。 在《串刺者》裡,纖細的蝴蝶與蛾被整齊地疊放成長條的縱列,而在《夜行雌蛾》中,一隻巨大的、長著翅膀的昆蟲整被一群人圍攏著觀察, 他們的形象讓人想起了法國寫實主義藝術家古斯塔夫·庫爾貝(Gustave Courbet)筆下的人物。 用勞赫自己的話來說,「我總是盡自己最大的努力去理解繪畫中[納入的這些象徵性元素的]驅動到底是什麼……它們證明了繪畫具有無限的可能性——坦白說, 我可以隨心所欲地畫,我只是要確保畫對自己而言是適合的。」3 和展覽《地標》中的其他畫作一樣,這些極具個人風格的構圖體現了介於過去以及藝術家對當下的經歷之間的緊張關係與模棱兩可之處,同時也更廣泛地綜合了藝術史及表徵形式。


尼奧·勞赫(1960年生)出生於萊比錫,日前仍生活工作於此。 他曾在萊比錫書籍藝術及平面設計學院(Hochschulefür Grafik und Buchkunst,現稱「萊比錫視覺藝術學院」)求學。 2000年,勞赫在紐約的卓納畫廊舉辦了首場畫廊個展,自此便一直由卓納代理。 2019年,他舉辦於畫廊香港空間的個展《宣傳》是藝術家在中國的首次個展呈現,而2016年,他曾在畫廊的倫敦空間舉辦了個展《尼奧·勞赫:迴旋曲》。 他在紐約的畫廊個展還包括:《路標》(2021)、《在井邊》(2014)《療養院》(2011)、《尼奧·勞赫(同名個展)》(2008)、《叛變者 》(2005)、《尼奧·勞赫(同名個展)》(2002)以及上述提到的畫廊首展《尼奧·勞赫(同名個展)》(2000)。

勞赫的作品在各大重要的國際機構裡舉辦過許多個展。 2023年,他的個展《理性之夢》呈現於法國的MoCo蒙佩利耶當代藝術館。 2022-2023年間,專注於其紙本作品的《尼奧·勞赫:移開目光》呈現於荷蘭阿森的德倫特博物館,而《尼奧·勞赫:中間》則呈現於荷蘭茲沃勒(Zwolle)的視覺藝術博物館。 2019-2020年間,《尼奧·勞赫-2008到2019年的作品》在佛羅倫斯的皮蒂宮(Palazzo Pitti)舉行。 2018-2019年間,《尼奧·勞赫:來自地面》舉辦於愛荷華州的得梅因藝術中心,並在隨後巡展至紐約的繪畫中心。 2018年,《尼奧·勞赫:德羅莫斯,1993-2017年的繪畫》呈現於荷蘭則呈現於荷蘭茲沃勒的基金會博物館。 2013年,布魯塞爾的BOZAR藝術中心為其舉辦了題為《對創世主德穆革的迷戀. 1993-2012年精選作品》的個展。 而在2010年,藝術家

首個重要博物館專題展,由萊比錫藝術博物館和慕尼黑現代藝術陳列室共同舉辦,在隨後的2011年,位於華沙的紮切塔波蘭國家美術館基於這次專題展呈現了勞赫的個展。

其他呈現藝術家個展的機構場館還包括:德國開姆尼茨藝術博物館(2012);德國巴登-巴登的弗里德爾布爾達收藏博物館(2011);奧地利克羅斯滕新堡的埃塞爾 博物館(2011);紐約的大都會藝術博物館(2007);布拉格的魯道夫美術館(2007);蒙特婁當代藝術博物館
(2006);德國的沃爾夫斯堡藝術博物館(2006);西班牙的馬拉 加當代藝術中心(2005);維也納的阿爾貝蒂娜博物館(2004);以及荷蘭馬斯特里赫特的博尼范登博物館(2002)。

2012年,「尼奧·勞赫圖文基金會」(Grafikstiftung Neo Rauch)在藝術家的家鄉德國阿舍爾斯萊本成立,基金會致力於對勞赫的圖像創作工作進行維護與保存。 為慶祝創立十週年,「尼奧勞赫圖文基金會」舉辦了以藝術家自1988年來版畫創作為專題的展覽,並將持續展出到2024年4月28日。

藝術家的作品珍藏於世界各地重要博物館與機構的館藏之中,包括維也納阿爾貝蒂娜博物館、荷蘭馬斯特里赫特的博尼范登博物館、洛杉磯的布洛德博物館、匹茲堡的卡內基 藝術博物館、丹佛藝術博物館、愛荷華州的舉辦於愛荷華州的得梅因藝術中心、巴塞爾的貝耶勒基金會、佛羅倫斯的烏菲茲藝廊、海牙市立博物館、柏林 的漢堡火車站-現代藝術博物館、德國沃爾夫斯堡藝術博物館、紐約的大都會藝術博物館、萊比錫萊比錫藝術博物館、科隆路德維希博物館、紐約現代藝術博物館、荷蘭的福爾林登博物館、 加拿大的渥太華國家美術館、慕尼黑現代藝術展示館、舊金山現代藝術博物館、紐約古根漢美術館、首爾的Space K博物館,以及阿姆斯特丹市立博物館等。


1 托馬斯·米尼(Thomas Meaney),《尼奧·勞赫的對抗性藝術》,發表於《紐約客》雜誌(2021年9月27日),在線版。
2 尼奧·勞赫,引語出自藝術家與埃娜·斯萬塞(Ena Swansea)的訪談,《尼奧·勞赫:來自地面》,展覽圖冊(紐約:繪畫中心出版,2018年),第28頁。

3 勞赫的引言出自藝術家與海倫·特雷斯佩赫(Hélène Trespeuch)的對談,《永恆的、令人回味的、獨特的》,收錄於《尼奧·勞赫:理性之夢》, 展覽圖冊(巴黎及蒙佩利耶,法國:Bernard Chauveau Édition及MoCo蒙佩利耶當代藝術館共同出版,2023年),第xiii頁。







媒體查詢:
龔凱欣 Victoria Kung vkung@davidzwirner.com

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