A great story about the German painter Neo Rauch was recently published in the New Yorker. The reporter Thomas Meaney had visited him in his home in Leipzig, had been driven by Rauch in his sports car through the East German countryside and had eaten beef cheeks with him in the "Gray Court". Meaney describes with amazement the centaurs and the barefoot young women that Rauch paints, he reports on Rauch's distrust of activists and Annalena Baerbock, of his love for Ernst Jünger, of his processing of the lost utopias of socialism and of a misunderstanding that, according to Meaneys, was Opinion established Rauch's success in America: "Some wealthy buyers liked the idea of ​​hanging parables of failed communism in their living rooms," the reporter writes.Soon after Rauch's discovery, “private jets from La Guardia for direct flights to Leipzig” set off. He also writes about the conflict between Rauch and the art critic Wolfgang Ullrich, who accused the painter of new right tendencies. Rauch responded with a painting titled “Der Anbräuner” and showing a figure who paints a Nazi with excrement. To this picture, in which Ullrich saw himself portrayed, the critic responded with the booklet “Feindbild Werden ". The foothills of this new East-West conflict in the German art world even reached New York.Rauch responded with a painting titled “Der Anbräuner” and showing a figure who paints a Nazi with excrement. To this picture, in which Ullrich saw himself portrayed, the critic responded with the booklet “Feindbild Werden ". The foothills of this new East-West conflict in the German art world even reached New York.Rauch responded with a painting titled “Der Anbräuner” and showing a figure who paints a Nazi with excrement. To this picture, in which Ullrich saw himself portrayed, the critic responded with the booklet “Feindbild Werden ". The foothills of this new East-West conflict in the German art world even reached New York.

But what is happening now in Leipzig, where, not so long ago, entire generations of young painters from all over the world were looking for the Leipzig School?

Private jets haven't landed here for a long time. A budding artist pushes his bicycle past the red-weathered brick walls on the grounds of the old Leipzig cotton spinning mill. You see bizarre constructions, winches that have become pointless, rails that have long been deserted. The hype surrounding the New Leipzig School has subsided, and traditionally you don't hear that much about art from Dresden. In fact, an art scene has developed in both cities that is unparalleled not only in Germany. The art professors maintain old painting traditions. Meticulous study of nature and drawing until the young art students grow corneas on their hands and their fingers bleed are a must. Most of the graduates stay.The art college continues to attract figurative painters from all over the world, who find an ideal, creative environment in the rustic labyrinth of the Wilhelminian-style factory.

Before Corona, the New Zealand artist Lisa Chandler commuted between Leipzig and Golden Bay every six months. In the trade fair city, she not only found space, but also stimulating conversation partners. In her monumental painting “Language of the Unheard” (2017) demonstrators and police officers collide like forces of nature; the stringent geometry and dynamic image space develop a strong pull that draws the viewer into the action. The work was last exhibited in the Massiv archive exhibition room on the spinning mill site and is now hanging in the Tauranga Art Gallery in New Zealand. Chandler wants to give the "ignored" a voice. Not only in this picture, but in a whole series of works, consisting of numerous paintings, serial miniatures, drawings and collages,she deals with the global protest culture.