Neo Rauch (born April 1960 in Leipzig) is an German artist who creates large-scale surreal paintings thriving with vivid color. He is the most celebrated and respected graduate of Leipzig’s Academy of Visual Arts, which is a known haven for Socialist Realism. In an interview with the Art Review, he says "I see myself as a theatre director." His inexplicable dramas carry a mysterious cast of men in uniform, laborers, devils and angels - all of them locked in some secret battle. The strangeness of his work always draws me in, impossible juxtapositions in fractured dream-like landscapes hint at some undecipherable enigmatic code demanding my attention. My favorite piece is actually unusual for Neo Rauch; it is a landscape entirely void of mysterious people.

I am particularly fond of the miniature model of a tropical hurricane, and the gentleman sitting on the guillotine in the library.

Notice the man beside the house, with a figure from
the past holding a gun to his head.

 

To take a look at some more work by Rauch, visit this website:
http://www.davidzwirner.com/artists/12/

Neo Rauch On Wikipedia