THE TRUTH ABOUT GERMANY?
by Donald Kuspit


There are "two sorts of truth," Niels Bohr wrote, "trivialities, where opposites are obviously absurd, and profound truths, recognized by the fact that the opposite is also a profound truth."(1) Are Neo Rauch’s pictures of Germany trivially or profoundly true? Is Rauch a true dialectician, "living with live opposites," or is he indulging in nihilistic absurdity? Does he picture the German Geist of Yesterday or the German Geist of Today? Does he represent or misrepresent Germany? Rauch’s works are allegories of German history, but is their ironical pessimism its whole story? These questions haunt Neo Rauch’s art, enriching its significance.

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