Neo-Expressionism is a contemporary art movement in 20th-century painting. The style originated from the late 70s to mid 80s. The artists reacted against the minimalism and conceptualism of the sixties and seventies and broke with the modern idea of ​​progress in art.

Neo-expressionism arose from dissatisfaction with the prevailing dogmas of the modernist avant-garde, who sought purity of art. The aesthetic formalism of the avant-garde dictated that things like story and perspective were to be excluded from the painting, and focused fully on that which belongs to the purely pictorial. In response, hungry for images and imagination, the neo-expressionists used everything what was previously disowned. It resulted in boisterous, sometimes aggressive, sometimes sensual works full of colors and shapes. The most important features that were brought by the neo-expressionism in painting: the revaluation of the decorative, the re-use of literary references, political commitment, mixing high culture and mass or subculture (eg graffiti, comics , ethnic art), eclecticism, irony, shocking referecenses and a purposeful pursuit of eccentricity.

In the eighties, the neo-expressionism has Wilden its heyday with the New and the Italian trans-avant-garde.

most important artists:

First generation of neo-expressionists: Georg Baselitz, Jörg Immendorff, Anselm Kiefer, Bianca Vanwersch, Per Kirkeby, Markus Lüpertz, A. R. Penck, Susan Rothenberg And Julian Schnabel

The German Neue Wilde: Peter Angermann, Werner Büttner, Wolfgang Cilarz, Walter Dahn, Martin Disler, Jiri Georg Dokoupil, Rainer Fetting, Peter Robert Keil, Martin Kippenberger, Jan Knap, Milan Kunc, Helmut Middendorf, Albert Oehlen, Markus Oehlen, Elias Maria Reti en Eugen Schönbeck

The Dutch New Wilds: Erik Andriesse, René Daniëls, Piet Dieleman, Bart Domburg, Jurriaan van Hall, Floor van Keulen, Peter Klashorst, Maarten (van der) Ploeg, John van 't Slot

The Flemisch New Wilds: Fred Bervoets, Hugo Debaere

Figuration Libre in Fance: Rémi Blanchard, François Boisrond, Robert Comabas, Hervé Di Rossa

Bad Painting in the USA: Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, David Salle en Julian Schnabel

Transavanguardia in Italië: Sandro Chia, Francesco Clemente, Enzo Cucchi en Mimmo Paladino