Neo Rauch: Propaganda

Propaganda pairs the new paintings from Neo Rauch's 2019 Hong Kong exhibition with a short story by the novelist Daniel Kehlmann.

The show at David Zwirner Hong Kong was Rauch's first solo presentation in China. The book shows eight large canvases and seven smaller works, with 31 color reproductions across 76 pages. In some of the large canvases the surface is crowded with characters, objects and forms at different scales and in conflicting arrangements, so that they read as a collage of Rauch's personal iconography. Kehlmann's story moves between present-day New York and a time of enchanted forests, knights and witches. Rauch describes his own process as drawing on the sediments of his past in an almost trance-like state. The hardcover measures 17.1 x 24.1 cm and was designed by Wkshps. It belongs to the Spotlight Series from David Zwirner Books, issued in English-only and bilingual English/traditional Chinese editions.

Rauch was born in Leipzig in 1960 and studied at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst. He has shown with David Zwirner since 2000, and the gallery mounted Rondo in London in 2016. Kehlmann is a German novelist, essayist and playwright. His novel Measuring the World (2007) has been translated into forty languages.