Neo-expressionism

Art movement

Neo-expressionism is a style of late modernist or early-postmodern painting and sculpture that emerged in the late 1970s. Neo-expressionists were sometimes called Transavantgarde, 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.[1]

Neo-expressionism developed as a reaction against conceptual art 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.[2] It was overtly inspired by German Expressionist painters, such as Emil Nolde, Max Beckmann, George Grosz, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, James Ensor and Edvard Munch. It is also related to American lyrical abstraction 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, precedents in Pop Painting,[3] 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.[4]

## Critical reception

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Neo-expressionism dominated the art market until the mid-1980s.[5] 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.[6] From the point of view of the history of Modern Art, 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.[7]

Critics such as Benjamin Buchloh, Hal Foster, 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, and a return to mythic subjects and individualist methods they deemed outmoded.[8][6] Women were notoriously marginalized in the movement,[9] and painters such as Elizabeth Murray[10] 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.[11]

## Neo-expressionism around the world

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The movement became known as Transavanguardia in Italy and Neue Wilden in Germany, and the group Figuration Libre was formed in France in 1981.[12] In Toronto, the group known as ChromaZone/Chromatique Collective was formed in 1981 and existed till 1986.[13]

## Key neo-expressionist painters

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* Georg Baselitz
* Jean-Michel Basquiat
* Sandro Chia
* Enzo Cucchi
* Francesco Clemente
* Eric Fischl
* Philip Guston
* Anselm Kiefer
* Robert Longo
* Rick Prol
* Julian Schnabel

## See also

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* Abstract expressionism
* Black Abstractionism
* Expressionism
* Postmodernism
* Postmodern art
* New European Painting

## References

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1. ^ Chilvers, Ian and John Glaves-Smith. A Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art. Oxford University Press (2009), p. 503
2. ^ Graham Thompson,American Culture in the 1980s, Edinburgh University Press, 2007, p. 73
3. ^ Chilvers, Ian and John Glaves-Smith. A Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art. Oxford University Press (2009), p. 503-504
4. ^ [1] New Image Painting, Oxford Reference
5. ^ Graham Thompson,American Culture in the 1980s, Edinburgh University Press, 2007, p. 70
6. ^ a b Kurczynski, Karen (2011). "Neo-Expressionism in America". Grove Art Online. doi:10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T2090601.
7. ^ Graham Thompson,American Culture in the 1980s, Edinburgh University Press, 2007, p. 71
8. ^ Graham Thompson,American Culture in the 1980s, Edinburgh University Press, 2007, p. 30
9. ^ Cohen, Alina (2019-03-01). "The Bad Boy Artists of the 1980s Owe a Debt to Their Feminist Predecessors". Artsy. Retrieved 2021-05-07.
10. ^ Jones, Amelia (2009-02-09). A Companion to Contemporary Art Since 1945. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-4051-5235-8.
11. ^ "A New Spirit of Painting makes a comeback (with one woman artist this time)". www.theartnewspaper.com. 3 May 2018. Retrieved 2021-05-06.
12. ^ Tate. "Neo-expressionism". Tate. Retrieved 2023-02-20.
13. ^ Holubizky, Ihor. "Painting: Modern Movements". www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca. Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23 October 2024.

## External links

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Premodern, Modern and Contemporary art movements

List of art movements/periods

Premodern
(Western)|

| Ancient|

* Thracian
* Dacian
* Nuragic
* Aegean
* Cycladic
* Minoan
* Minyan ware
* Mycenaean
* Greek
* Sub-Mycenaean
* Protogeometric
* Geometric
* Orientalizing
* Archaic
* Black-figure
* Red-figure
* Severe style
* Classical
* Kerch style
* Hellenistic
* "Baroque"
* Indo-Greek
* Greco-Buddhist
* Neo-Attic
* Etruscan
* Scythian
* Iberian
* Gaulish
* Roman
* Republican
* Gallo-Roman
* Julio-Claudian
* Pompeian Styles
* Trajanic
* Severan

|

Medieval|

* Late antique
* Early Christian
* Coptic
* Ethiopian
* Migration Period
* Anglo-Saxon
* Hunnic
* Insular
* Lombard
* Visigothic
* Donor portrait
* Pictish
* Mozarabic
* Repoblación
* Viking
* Byzantine
* Iconoclast
* Macedonian
* Palaeologan
* Italo-Byzantine
* Frankish
* Merovingian
* Carolingian
* Pre-Romanesque
* Ottonian
* Romanesque
* Mosan
* Spanish
* Norman
* Norman-Sicilian
* Opus Anglicanum
* Gothic
* Gothic art in Milan
* International Gothic
* International Gothic art in Italy
* Lucchese school
* Crusades
* Novgorod school
* Duecento
* Sienese school
* Mudéjar
* Medieval cartography
* Italian school
* Majorcan school
* Mappa mundi

Renaissance|

* Italian Renaissance
* Trecento
* Proto-Renaissance
* Florentine school
* Pittura infamante
* Quattrocento
* Ferrarese school
* Forlivese school
* Venetian school
* Cinquecento
* High Renaissance
* Bolognese school
* Mannerism
* Counter-Maniera
* Northern Renaissance
* Early Netherlandish
* World landscape
* Ghent–Bruges school
* Northern Mannerism
* German Renaissance
* Cologne school
* Danube school
* Dutch and Flemish Renaissance
* Antwerp Mannerism
* Romanism
* Still life
* English Renaissance
* Tudor court
* Cretan school
* Turquerie
* Fontainebleau school
* Art of the late 16th century in Milan

17th century|

* Baroque
* Baroque in Milan
* Flemish Baroque
* Caravaggisti
* in Utrecht
* Tenebrism
* Louis XIII style
* Lutheran Baroque
* Stroganov school
* Animal painting
* Guild of Romanists
* Dutch Golden Age
* Delft school
* Capriccio
* Heptanese school
* Classicism
* Louis XIV style
* Poussinists and Rubenists

18th century|

* Rococo
* Rocaille
* Louis XV style
* Frederician
* Chinoiserie
* Fête galante
* Neoclassicism
* Goût grec
* Louis XVI style
* Adam style
* Directoire style
* Neoclassical architecture in Milan
* Picturesque

Colonial art|

* Art of the African diaspora
* African-American
* Caribbean
* Haitian
* Colonial Asian art
* Arts in the Philippines
* Letras y figuras
* Tipos del País
* Colonial Asian Baroque
* Company style
* Latin American art
* Casta painting
* Indochristian art
* Chilote school
* Cuzco school
* Quito school
* Latin American Baroque

Art borrowing
Western elements|

* Islamic
* Moorish
* Manichaean
* Mughal
* Qajar
* Qing handicrafts
* Western influence in Japan
* Akita ranga
* Uki-e

Transition
to modern
(c. 1770 – 1862)|

* Romanticism
* Fairy painting
* Danish Golden Age
* Troubadour style
* Nazarene movement
* Purismo
* Shoreham Ancients
* Düsseldorf school
* Pre-Raphaelites
* Hudson River School
* American luminism
* Orientalism
* Norwich school
* Empire style
* Historicism
* Revivalism
* Biedermeier
* Realism
* Barbizon school
* Costumbrismo
* Verismo
* Macchiaioli
* Academic art
* Munich school
* in Greece
* Neo-Grec
* Etching revival

Modern
(1863–1944)|

| 1863–1899|

* Neo-romanticism
* National romanticism
* Yōga
* Nihonga
* Japonisme
* Anglo-Japanese style
* Beuron school
* Hague school
* Peredvizhniki
* Impressionism
* American
* Hoosier Group
* Boston school
* Amsterdam
* Canadian
* Heidelberg school
* Aestheticism
* Arts and Crafts
* Art pottery
* Tonalism
* Decadent movement
* Symbolism
* Romanian
* Russian
* Volcano school
* Incoherents
* Post-Impressionism
* Neo-Impressionism
* Luminism
* Divisionism
* Pointillism
* Pont-Aven School
* Cloisonnism
* Synthetism
* Les Nabis
* American Barbizon school
* California tonalism
* Costumbrismo

|

1900–1914|

* Art Nouveau
* Art Nouveau in Milan
* Primitivism
* California Impressionism
* Secessionism
* School of Paris
* Munich Secession
* Vienna Secession
* Berlin Secession
* Sonderbund
* Pennsylvania Impressionism
* Mir iskusstva
* Ten American Painters
* Fauvism
* Expressionism
* Die Brücke
* Der Blaue Reiter
* Noucentisme
* Deutscher Werkbund
* American Realism
* Ashcan school
* Cubism
* Proto-Cubism
* Orphism
* A Nyolcak
* Neue Künstlervereinigung München
* Futurism
* Cubo-Futurism
* Art Deco
* Metaphysical
* Rayonism
* Productivism
* Synchromism
* Vorticism

1915–1944|

* Sosaku-hanga
* Suprematism
* School of Paris
* Crystal Cubism
* Constructivism
* Latin American
* Universal Constructivism
* Dada
* Shin-hanga
* Neoplasticism
* De Stijl
* Purism
* Return to order
* Novecento Italiano
* Figurative Constructivism
* Stupid
* Cologne Progressives
* Arbeitsrat für Kunst
* November Group
* Australian tonalism
* Dresden Secession
* Social realism
* Functionalism
* Bauhaus
* Kinetic art
* Anthropophagy
* Mingei
* Group of Seven
* New Objectivity
* Grosvenor school
* Neues Sehen
* Surrealism
* Iranian
* Latin American
* Mexican muralism
* Neo-Fauvism
* Precisionism
* Aeropittura
* Asso
* Scuola Romana
* Cercle et Carré
* The Group
* Harlem Renaissance
* Kapists
* Regionalism
* California Scene Painting
* Heroic realism
* Socialist realism
* Nazi art
* Streamline Moderne
* Concrete art
* Abstraction-Création
* The Ten
* Dimensionism
* Boston Expressionism
* Leningrad school

Contemporary
and Postmodern
(1945–present)|

| 1945–1959|

* International Typographic Style
* Abstract expressionism
* Washington Color School
* Visionary art
* Vienna School of Fantastic Realism
* Spatialism
* Color field
* Lyrical abstraction
* Tachisme
* Arte Informale
* COBRA
* Nuagisme
* Generación de la Ruptura
* Jikken Kōbō
* Metcalf Chateau
* Mono-ha
* Nanyang Style
* Action painting
* American Figurative Expressionism
* in New York
* New media art
* New York school
* Hard-edge painting
* Bay Area Figurative Movement
* Les Plasticiens
* Gutai Art Association
* Gendai Bijutsu Kondankai
* Pop art
* Situationist International
* Soviet Nonconformist
* Ukrainian underground
* Lettrism
* Letterist International
* Ultra-Lettrist
* Florida Highwaymen
* Cybernetic art
* Antipodeans

|

1960–1969|

* Otra Figuración
* Afrofuturism
* Nueva Presencia
* ZERO
* Happening
* Neo-Dada
* Neo-Dada Organizers
* Op art
* Nouveau réalisme
* Nouvelle tendance
* Capitalist realism
* Art & Language
* Arte Povera
* Black Arts Movement
* The Caribbean Artists Movement
* Chicano art movement
* Conceptual art
* Land art
* Systems art
* Video art
* Minimalism
* Fluxus
* Generative art
* Post-painterly abstraction
* Intermedia
* Psychedelic art
* Nut Art
* Photorealism
* Environmental art
* Performance art
* Process art
* Institutional critique
* Light and Space
* Street art
* Feminist art movement
* in the US
* Saqqakhaneh movement
* The Stars Art Group
* Tropicália
* Yoru no Kai
* Artificial intelligence art

1970–1999|

* Post-conceptual art
* Installation art
* Artscene
* Postminimalism
* Endurance art
* Sots Art
* Moscow Conceptualists
* Pattern and Decoration
* Pliontanism
* Punk art
* Neo-expressionism
* Transavantgarde
* Saint Soleil school
* Guerrilla art
* Lowbrow art
* Telematic art
* Appropriation art
* Neo-conceptual art
* New European Painting
* Tunisian collaborative painting
* Memphis Group
* Cyberdelic
* Neue Slowenische Kunst
* Scratch video
* Retrofuturism
* Young British Artists
* Superfiction
* Taring Padi
* Superflat
* New Leipzig school
* Artist-run initiative
* Artivism
* The Designers Republic
* Grunge design
* Verdadism

2000–
present|

* Amazonian pop art
* Altermodern
* Art for art
* Art game
* Art intervention
* Brandalism
* Classical Realism
* Contemporary African art
* Africanfuturism
* Contemporary Indigenous Australian art
* Crypto art
* Cyborg art
* Excessivism
* Fictive art
* Flat design
* Corporate Memphis
* Hypermodernism
* Hyperrealism
* Idea art
* Internet art
* Post-Internet
* iPhone art
* Kitsch movement
* Lightpainting
* Massurrealism
* Modern European ink painting
* Neo-futurism
* Neomodern
* Neosymbolism
* Passionism
* Post-YBAs
* Relational art
* Skeuomorphism
* Software art
* Sound art
* Stuckism
* Superflat
* SoFlo Superflat
* Superstroke
* Toyism
* Unilalianism
* Vaporwave
* Walking Artists Network

Related topics|

* History of art
* Abstract art
* Asemic writing
* Anti-art
* Avant-garde
* Ballets Russes
* Christian art
* Art in the Protestant Reformation and Counter-Reformation
* Catholic art
* Icon
* Lutheran art
* Digital art
* Fantastic art
* Folk art
* Hierarchy of genres
* Genre painting
* History painting
* Illuminated manuscript
* Illustration
* Interactive art
* Jewish art
* Kitsch
* Landscape painting
* Modernism
* Modern sculpture
* Late modernism
* Naïve art
* Outsider art
* Portrait
* Prehistoric European art
* Queer art
* Realism
* Shock art
* Trompe-l'œil
* Western painting

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