Around the middle of the 1990s Neo Rauch created a series of pictures in an extremely oblong format. He places landscapes and motifs with real and surreal sequences side by side like a comic strip. The earthen muted tones, found on many his paintings, add an ominous atmosphere to the dream sequences. The sailing boat on the white sea, usually associated with freedom, seems rather lost, an effect achieved through the narrow frame and the buildings seem sort of caged. The picture's connecting is a figure transporting a stele - the reappering on the image's horizon is like a kind of monument. [AP]