Neo Rauch did much to prepare the way for the return of figuration in the visual arts. In the 1990s he conquered the international art world with his figurative paintings. At the time, they fell outside the normal canon of contemporary art, being neither abstract nor conceptual. His preference for comic strips, his origins in the GDR, the mysterious, unfathomable nature of his narratives – these are all part of the Rauch Riddle. Thanks to him, Leipzig gained an international reputation as a city of painters. Die Mitte is an overview of Neo Rauch’s most recent paintings, combined with a particular category of early work – the series of tondi he made in 1993 and 1994.