The New Yorker's current Critic's Notebook opens like this:
"Has anyone ever loved a picture by Neo Rauch at first sight?"
However, I wan't looking at them in person, and since there seems to be so much going on in each painting, I wonder if I might feel differently after exploring them further.
I certainly have no problems with his level of craftsmanship. He is obviously a good painter. Still, there is something that isolates the viewer form his work, a divide between the subjects and the viewer. I have gotten a similar dispassionate feeling when I have seen certain Dali's, as if there is a busy strangeness simply for its own sake. This can be done successfully, but often it just comes off feeling dry and emotionless.
That all being said, I don't dislike Rauch's work, I just find it wanting. But I will keep looking. I don't love it now, but who knows, maybe I will eventually find that missing piece. I certainly learned to appreciate what I once couldn't understand about Dali.
