Neo-expressionism is a style of late modernist or early-

postmodern Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or Rhetorical modes, mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by philosophical skepticism, skepticis ...

painting and sculpture that emerged in the late 1970s. Neo-expressionists were sometimes called ''

Transavantgarde Transavantgarde or Transavanguardia is the Italian version of Neo-expressionism, an art movement that swept through Italy and the rest of Western Europe in the late 1970s and 1980s. The term ''transavanguardia'' was coined by the Italian art criti ...

'', '' Junge Wilde'' or ''Neue Wilden'' ('The new wild ones'; 'New Fauves' would better meet the meaning of the term). It is characterized by intense subjectivity and rough handling of materials. Neo-expressionism developed as a reaction against

conceptual art Conceptual art, also referred to as conceptualism, is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic, technical, and material concerns. Some works of conceptual art, sometimes called ins ...

and minimal art of the 1970s. Neo-expressionists returned to portraying recognizable objects, such as the human body (although sometimes in an abstract manner), in a rough and violently emotional way, often using vivid colors. It was overtly inspired by German Expressionist painters, such as Emil Nolde, Max Beckmann,

George Grosz George Grosz (; born Georg Ehrenfried Groß; July 26, 1893 – July 6, 1959) was a German artist known especially for his caricatural drawings and paintings of Berlin life in the 1920s. He was a prominent member of the Berlin Dada and New Obj ...

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (6 May 1880 – 15 June 1938) was a German expressionist painter and printmaker and one of the founders of the artists group Die Brücke or "The Bridge", a key group leading to the foundation of Expressionism in 20th-century ...

, James Ensor and

Edvard Munch Edvard Munch ( , ; 12 December 1863 – 23 January 1944) was a Norwegian painter. His best known work, '' The Scream'' (1893), has become one of Western art's most iconic images. His childhood was overshadowed by illness, bereavement and the d ...

. It is also related to American

Lyrical Abstraction Lyrical abstraction is either of two related but distinct trends in Post-war Modernist painting: ''European Abstraction Lyrique'' born in Paris, the French art critic Jean José Marchand being credited with coining its name in 1947, considered ...

painting of the 1960s and 1970s, The Hairy Who movement in Chicago, the Bay Area Figurative School of the 1950s and 1960s, the continuation of

Abstract Expressionism Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the ...

, precedents in Pop Painting, and New Image Painting: a vague late 1970s term applied to painters who employed a strident figurative style with cartoon-like imagery and abrasive handling owing something to Neo-Expressionism. The New Image Painting term was given currency by a 1978 exhibition entitled ''New Image Painting'' held at the Whitney Museum.

Critical reception

Neo-expressionism dominated the art market until the mid-1980s. The style emerged internationally and was viewed by many critics, such as Achille Bonito Oliva and Donald Kuspit, as a revival of traditional themes of self-expression in European art after decades of American dominance. The social and economic value of the movement was hotly debated. From the point of view of the history of

Modern Art Modern art includes artistic work produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the styles and philosophies of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the tradi ...

, art critic Robert Hughes dismissed Neo-Expressionist painting as retrograde, as a failure of radical imagination, and as a lamentable capitulation to the art market. Critics such as Benjamin Buchloh,

Hal Foster Harold Rudolf Foster, FRSA (August 16, 1892 – July 25, 1982) was a Canadian-American comic strip artist and writer best known as the creator of the comic strip '' Prince Valiant''. His drawing style is noted for its high level of draftsmanship ...

, Craig Owens, and Mira Schor were highly critical of its relation to the marketability of painting on the rapidly expanding art market, celebrity, the backlash against feminism,

anti-intellectualism Anti-intellectualism is hostility to and mistrust of intellect, intellectuals, and intellectualism, commonly expressed as deprecation of education and philosophy and the dismissal of art, literature, and science as impractical, politically ...

, and a return to mythic subjects and individualist methods they deemed outmoded. Women were notoriously marginalized in the movement, and painters such as Elizabeth Murray and Maria Lassnig were omitted from many of its key exhibitions, most notoriously the 1981 ''New Spirit in Painting'' exhibition in London which included 38 male painters but no female painters.

Neo-expressionist artists around the world

Australia

* Davida Allen * Peter Booth * Kevin Connor * Brett Whiteley

Austria

* Maria Lassnig

Brazil

* Rodrigo Franzão

Cuba

* Adriano Nicot * Luis Marín

Denmark

* Anette Abrahamsson * Claus Carstensen * Ursula Reuter Christiansen (born in Germany, active in Denmark) * Dorte Dahlin * Inge Ellegaard * Erik A. Frandsen *

Michael Kvium Michael Otto Albert Kvium (born 15 November 1955) is a Danish artist. He has excelled in a number of fields such as painting, illustrating, sculpting and various performing arts, performance genres. Since the early 1980s, he has created grotesque r ...

Christian Lemmerz Christian Lemmerz (born January 30, 1959) is a German-Danish Sculpture, sculptor and Visual arts, visual artist who attended the Accademia di Belle Arti in Carrara, Italy, from 1978 to 1982 and the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts from 1983 to 198 ...

* Kehnet Nielsen * Lars Nørgård * Lars Ravn *

Nina Sten-Knudsen Nina Sten-Knudsen (born 1957) is a Danish painter who played a central role in the Danish Wild Youth trend in the 1980s. She gained recognition from her participation in the 1982 exhibition ''Kniven på hovedet'' (Knife on the Head) held at Trane ...

France

* Rémi Blanchard * Robert Combas * Jacques Grinberg *

Hervé Di Rosa Hervé Di Rosa (born 1959 in Sète, Hérault) is a French painter. Born in Sète, France, Hervé Di Rosa is a French painter who brings to life unique characters who populate his work in the form of paintings, sculptures, installations and animati ...

René Marcil René Marcil (May 29, 1917 – September 25, 1993) was a Canadian '' Québécois'' artist, painter and fashion illustrator from Montréal, Québec. He spent most of his professional life in New York, Paris, on the French Riviera and in Londo ...

Germany

Georg Baselitz Georg Baselitz (born 23 January 1938) is a German painter, sculptor and graphic artist. In the 1960s he became well known for his figurative, expressive paintings. In 1969 he began painting his subjects upside down in an effort to overcome the ...

Anselm Kiefer Anselm Kiefer (born 8 March 1945) is a German painter and sculptor. He studied with Peter Dreher and Horst Antes at the end of the 1960s. His works incorporate materials such as straw, ash, clay, lead, and shellac. The poems of Paul Celan h ...

* Jörg Immendorff *

Per Kirkeby Per Kirkeby (1 September 1938 – 9 May 2018) was a Danish painter, poet, film maker and sculptor. Biography By the time Kirkeby completed a masters degree in arctic geology at the University of Copenhagen in 1964, he was already part of the ...

(born Denmark, active Germany) * A.R. Penck * Markus Lüpertz * Peter Robert Keil * Rainer Fetting * Salomé * Elvira Bach *

Peter Angermann Peter Angermann (born 1945 in Rehau, Bavaria) is a German painter based in Nuremberg. Education and career Initially, from 1966 to 1968, Peter Angermann, who was born in 1945 in Rehau, a small town in Upper Franconia in Bavaria, studied at the ...

* Luciano Castelli (born in Switzerland, active Germany) * Marwan Kassab-Bachi (born in Syria, active Germany)

India

Bhupen Khakhar Bhupen Khakhar (also spelled Bhupen Khakkar, 10 March 1934 – 8 August 2003) was an Indian artist. He was a member of the Baroda Group and gained international recognition for his work as "India's first 'Pop' artist." Works Khakhar was a sel ...

* Ebenezer Sunder Singh

Iraq

* Ahmed Al Safi

Italy

* Francesco Clemente * Sandro Chia *

Enzo Cucchi Enzo Cucchi (born 14 November 1949) is an Italian painter. A native of Morro d'Alba, province of Ancona, he was a key member of the Italian Transavanguardia movement, along with his countrymen Francesco Clemente, Mimmo Paladino, Nicola De Maria ...

* Mimmo Paladino

Mexico

* Julio Galán

Poland

* Ludwik Konarzewski-junior * Wilhelm Sasnal

South Africa

* Marlene Dumas

Spain

Miquel Barceló Miquel Barceló Artigues (born 1957) is a Spanish painter. Career Barceló was born at Felanitx, Mallorca. After having studied at the Arts and Crafts School of Palma for two years, he enrolled at the Fine Arts School of Barcelona in 197 ...

* Peris Carbonell * Jorge Rando

Sweden

* Daniel Jouseff

Switzerland

* Miriam Cahn *

Martin Disler Martin Disler (1 March 1949, Seewen – 27 August 1996, Geneva) was a Swiss painter, draughtsman and writer. He is associated with the ''Neue Wilde'' painting style. Born to a family of gardeners, he was expelled from school in 1968 for discipli ...

Leiko Ikemura is a Japanese-Swiss painter and sculptor. Biography Leiko Ikemura studied at Osaka University from 1970–1972. She then left Japan to study in Spain from 1973 to 1978 at the Academia de Bellas Artes in Granada and Seville. In 1979, Ikemura ...

Ukraine

* Vasiliy Ryabchenko

United Kingdom

David Hockney David Hockney (born 9 July 1937) is an English painter, draftsman, printmaker, stage designer, and photographer. As an important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considered one of the most influential British artists o ...

* Frank Auerbach *

Peter Howson Peter Howson OBE (born 27 March 1958) is a Scottish painter. He was a British official war artist in 1993 during the Bosnian War. Early life Peter Howson was born in London of Scottish parents and moved with his family to Prestwick, Ayrs ...

* Leon Kossoff * Christopher Le Brun

United States

* Ida Applebroog * Donald Baechler * Jennifer Bartlett * Leonard Baskin *

Jean-Michel Basquiat Jean-Michel Basquiat (; December 22, 1960 – August 12, 1988) was an American artist who rose to success during the 1980s as part of the Neo-expressionism movement. Basquiat first achieved fame as part of the graffiti duo SAMO, alongside ...

Richard Bosman Richard Bosman (born 1944) is an American artist, educator, and illustrator. Bosman is best known for his paintings and prints. His work is often related to crime, adventure, and disaster narratives; rural Americana; and nature and domestic theme ...

* Christopher Brown * Louisa Chase *

Chuck Connelly Chuck Connelly (born January 7, 1955, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is an American painter. Biography Connelly graduated from the Tyler School of Art in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania in 1977. Afterward, he moved from the Philadelphia area to ...

* Norris Embry * Eric Fischl *

Leon Golub Leon Golub (January 23, 1922 – August 8, 2004) was an American painter. He was born in Chicago, Illinois, where he also studied, receiving his BA at the University of Chicago in 1942, and his BFA and MFA at the Art Institute of Chicago in ...

* Philip Guston * Michael Hafftka * Marcus Jansen * Nabil Kanso * Kevin Larmee * Danny Minnick * Noel Rockmore * David Salle * Julian Schnabel * Ouattara Watts

Puerto Rico

* Arnaldo Roche Rabell

References

External links

{{Authority control Contemporary art movements Expressionism Modern art Postmodern art 1970s in art