The term Junge Wilde (

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

for "young wild ones") was originally applied to trends within the art world, and was only later used with reference to politics. At present, the term is used by German-language journalists to describe any group within a tradition that seeks to undermine established authority.

Artistic movement

In 1978, the Junge Wilde painting style arose in the German-speaking world in opposition to established

avant garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

minimal art Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is set out to expose the essence, essentials or identity of a subject through eliminating all non-essential forms, features or conc ...

and conceptual art. It was linked to the similar

Transavanguardia 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 Italian art critic Ach ...

movement in Italy, USA (

neo-expressionism Neo-expressionism is a style of Late modernism, late modernist or early-Postmodern art, postmodern painting and sculpture that emerged in the late 1970s. Neo-expressionists were sometimes called ''Transavantgarde'', ''Junge Wilde'' or ''Neue Wild ...

) and France (

Figuration Libre Figuration Libre (, ''Free Figuration'') is a French art movement which began in the 1980s. It is the French equivalent of Bad Painting and Neo-expressionism in America and Europe, Junge Wilde in Germany and Transvanguardia in Italy. Artists in ...

). The Junge Wilde painted their expressive paintings in bright, intense colors and with quick, broad brushstrokes very much influenced by Professor at the Academy of Art in Berlin, Karl Horst Hödicke (b:1938). They were sometimes called the Neue Wilde ( :de:Neue Wilde).

Influential artists

* Austria: , , , , ,

Hubert Schmalix Hubert Schmalix (17 December 1952 – 23 March 2025) was an Austrian painter. Biography Born in Graz on 17 December 1952, Schmalix studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna from 1971 to 1976 under the instruction of . In 1976, he gave his firs ...

, * Denmark: Berit Heggenhougen-Jensen, Nina Sten-Knudsen * Germany: ** Berlin:

Luciano Castelli Luciano Castelli (born 28 September 1951 in Lucerne) is a Swiss painter, graphic artist, photographer, sculptor and musician. Life and work Lucerne: model, self-promoter, Art Star Luciano Castelli visited the preliminary course of the School ...

Rainer Fetting Rainer Fetting (born 31 December 1949 in Wilhelmshaven, West Germany) is a German painter and sculptor. Rainer Fetting was one of the co-founders and main protagonists of the Galerie am Moritzplatz in Berlin, founded in the late 1970s by a gr ...

, Andreas Walther, , Salomé, ,

Elvira Bach Elvira Bach (born 22 June 1951) is a postmodernist German painter known for her colourful images of women.Hahn, Werner (23 September 2011)"Gegenwarts-Kunst belanglos – NIEDERGANG/Misere: Werke von ELVIRA BACH (postmoderne „Junge Wilde“) im ...

, Peter Robert Keil ** Cologne: , ,

Walter Dahn Walter Dahn (8 October 1954 – 7 November 2024) was a German painter, photographer, and sound artist. He was born in Tönisvorst, North Rhine-Westphalia. He was one of the most important representatives of the Neue Wilde of the 1980s. Dahn taught ...

Jiri Georg Dokoupil Jiri () is a municipality in Dolakha District in the Bagmati Province of central Nepal. At the time of the 2011 Nepal census it had a population of 13,638 people. Jiri, which lies about 190 kilometers from Kathmandu, is the main gateway to the ...

Leiko Ikemura is a Japanese-Swiss artist who works in a variety of mediums, including oil painting, sculpture, and watercolor. She divides her time between Cologne and Berlin, teaching painting at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin. Active on the internat ...

, , , ,

Elias Maria Reti Elias ( ; ) is the hellenized version for the name of Elijah (; ; , or ), a prophet in the Northern Kingdom of Israel in the 9th century BC, mentioned in several holy books. Due to Elias' role in the scriptures and to many later associated traditi ...

Stefan Szczesny Stefan Szczesny (born 9 April 1951) is a German painter, draughtsman, and sculptor. He is best known for co-founding the Neue Wilde movement in the early 1980s. Biography 1951–1994 Stefan Szczesny was born in Munich as the son of the p ...

** Dresden:

A. R. Penck Ralf Winkler, alias A. R. Penck, who also used the pseudonyms ''Mike Hammer'', ''T. M.'', ''Mickey Spilane'', ''Theodor Marx'', "''a. Y.''" or just "''Y''" (5 October 1939 – 2 May 2017) was a German painter, printmaker, sculptor ...

** Düsseldorf: ,

Jörg Immendorff Jörg Immendorff (14 June 1945 – 28 May 2007) was a German painter, sculptor, stage designer and art professor. He was a member of the art movement ''Neue Wilde''. Early life and education Immendorff was born in Bleckede, Lower Saxony, nea ...

Albert Oehlen Albert Oehlen (born 17 September 1954) is a German painter, installation artist and musician. He lives and works in Bühler, Switzerland and Segovia, Spain.

Markus Oehlen Markus Oehlen (born 1956) is a German painter, sculpture and musician. In the 1970s and 80s he was a founding member of the influential neo-expressionist art movement Neue Wilde in Düsseldorf, alongside Martin Kippenberger, Markus Lüpertz, an ...

Martin Kippenberger Martin Kippenberger (25 February 1953 – 7 March 1997) was a German painter, draftsman, photographer, sculptor, installation and performance artist. He became known for his prolific output in a wide range of styles and media, superfiction, as w ...

Markus Lüpertz Markus Lüpertz (born 25 April 1941) is a German painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and writer. He also publishes a magazine, and plays jazz piano. He is one of the best-known German contemporary artists. His subjects are characterized by suggest ...

, ,

Horst Gläsker Horst Gläsker (born 21 March 1949) is a German artist. His work is a symbiosis of music, dance, theatre, drawing, painting, sculpture, installation and architecture. Development From 1963 to 1966 Horst Gläsker did an apprenticeship as a show ...

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 ...

** Karlsruhe: Bernd Erich Gall * Switzerland:

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 discipl ...

*Montreal, Quebec, Canada: Cesare Oliva

Later usage

The term Junge Wilde began to be used by the media in the 1990s with reference to a certain group of politicians who bucked party leadership to make their names. It was first used with reference to the German CDU party (particularly against

Helmut Kohl Helmut Josef Michael Kohl (; 3 April 1930 – 16 June 2017) was a German politician who served as chancellor of Germany and governed the ''Federal Republic'' from 1982 to 1998. He was leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 1973 to ...

). Since then the term has also been applied to members of other parties.

References

{{reflist Political party factions in Germany German art movements