Neo Rauch - Comrades and Companions (2017)

Neo Rauch has a worldwide reputation as one of the most successful German painters of his generation. His paintings fascinate with their enigmatic realism; characters seem to have fallen out of time and appear in a sleepwalklike state. What the painter is presenting shifts between dream, fantasy and elusive reality, comprehensible and unconventional at the same time. The pictorial narrative is never explicit or clear – but nevertheless it leaves the beholder spellbound.
The film focuses on Neo Rauch himself. For the first time in years he talks in front of the camera about his approach to art, his universe of images and his personal past, which was deeply affected by the early loss of his parents. Director Nicola Graef shows the artist at work in his studio, observes critical dialogues with his artist wife Rosa Loy and discusses with international collectors, gallery owners and art lovers the phenomenon that is Neo Rauch.