Neo Rauch

Neo Rauch

Felsen, 2001, oil on canvas

Regel, 2000, oil on paper

Neo Rauch is a German oil painter. He combines themes of politics and personal history, Social Realism , and industrial alienation.

Subjects include men in uniform taking control of civilian life. The landscapes clash and have no apparent intention.  The artist or painter often appears in the paintings themselves, engaging in a violent struggle. Formally the figures appear realistically comic-booky like a cartoon I would turn off or a violent graphic novel.

His works have been described as "failed utopia"

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Dana Schutz

Dana Schutz

Death Comes To Us All, 2003, oil on canvas

Twister Mat, 2003, oil on canvas

Dana Schutz's work has been described as teetering on the edge of tradition and innovation.

Still lifes become personified, portraits become events, and landscapes become constructions. She embraces the area in which the subject is composed and decomposing, formed and formless, inanimate and alive. She works with themes of death and discomfort.

She paints in thick impasto with heavy line work, deep colors, and dark shadows.

After looking at a variety of her work, I think she addresses reality in a very illogical, surrealist way.

Anselm Kiefer

Anselm Kiefer

Margarethe, 1981, oil and bundles of straw on canvas

Icarus- Sand of the Brandenburg March, 1981, oil, emulsion, sand, shellac, and photograph on canvas

He incorporates materials such as straw, ash, clay, lead, and shellac into his large-scale oil paintings. Many of his works resemble landscapes or interiors of rooms.
He works with themes of German history, the horrors of the Holocaust, and the spiritual concepts of Kabbalah.

Also works in photography, sculpture, and book design.

Wilhelm Sasnal

Wilhelm Sasnal

Girl Smoking (Anka), 2001, oil on canvas

Soldiers, 2001, oil on canvas

Wilhelm Sasnal modifies reality by painting banal situations and objects in unusual compositions. He borrows subjects from art history, 20th century propaganda, and photojournalism. He explores modern concepts of beauty in his portrait series. The cigarettes in the women's mouths represent self-destruction. Many of his paintings are contemporary versions of Pop Art.

He paints in a way that you can clearly see the medium is paint.

Very similar to Luc Tuymans.