Neo-Expressionism

late 1960s/1970s-1980s
The Return of the Easel Painting
 Neo-Expressionism
• The global situation also contributed to the moment.
• Beginning in the 1960s and throughout the 1970s, artists question
the institution of art.
• The question, What is art? lead many to re-evaluate their work on
canvas.
• The trend of appropriation art, Conceptualism and Minimalism,
and Feminism leads is met with a backlash.
• Painting, easel painting especially, falls back in favor after the
colossal works of Abstract Expressionists and Earthwork artists
cause the art market to demand smaller, more portable canvases.
• Most Neo-Expressionist work exploits the taboo and primal to
create surrealistic images and nightmarish scenes.
• Neo-Expressionism helped to re-establish European artists in the
contemporary art scene.
 Neo-Expressionism
• Neo-Expressionists develop independently of one another, a
product of their own individual situation and not as some
universal codified movement.
• Neo-Expressionists welcome the object, utilize metaphor,
allegory and narrative, paint with bravura brushwork rich
color and diverse style.
• Unlike most modernist schools, Neo-Expressionists do not
reject the past. Instead, they revisit it and reject modernist
boundaries to explore elements of traditional painting
obscured by modernist aesthetic.
• For the most part, Neo-Expressionists have little in common
in terms of style.
 Neo-Expressionism
• American artists looked the
the expressionism of Picasso
who lived until 1973 and left
behind one of the most
diverse and prolific
portfolios amongst artists
even today.
• The Guggenheim’s hosting
of a 1983 exhibition of
Picasso’s final decade was
instrumental in restoring the
influence the artist had over
younger generations.
• The Picasso previously
discarded by modernists Pablo Picasso, Reclining Woman and Man
Playing Guitar, 1970. Oil on canvas, 51 1/8” x 76
was again relevant. ¾”. Musée Picasso, Paris.
 German Neo-Expressionism
Characteristics of Neo-Expressionism
•As a style, Neo-Expressionism develops in 1960s Germany and
dominates until the 1980s.
•Most who are labeled Neo-Expressionist reject the title.
•For German Neo-Expressionists in particular the style served as a
way to counter the dominating presence of American and Soviet
influence, especially its abstract style of painting.
•Neo-Expressionism is related to Lyrical Abstraction, Bay Area
Figuration, Pop art, and New Image art.
•Neo-Expressionist painters do not reject the painterly as many
had before them, they embrace the expressive potential of the
medium and re-institute traditional easel painting.
•German Neo-Expressionism focuses on the deformation of the
figure, the power of subject matter, and effervescent color.
 German Neo-Expressionism
Characteristics of Neo-
Expressionism
•New-Expressionists are descendants
of late 19th and early 20th century
Expressionists including Kirchner,
Munch, and Kandinsky.
– They are sometimes referred to as Neue
Wilden (New Wild Ones or New
Fauves).
•Neo-Expressionists make use of bold
energetic brushstrokes and re-
introduce the object, in both realistic
Edvard Munch, The Scream, 1893.
and abstract ways, to the canvas. Oil and tempera on board 35 ¾ x
29”. The National Gallery, Oslo
Norway.
 German Neo-Expressionism

• Georg Baselitz (b. 1938)

• Markus Lüpertz (b. 1941)
• A. R. Penck (b. 1939)
• Jörg Immendorff (1945-2007)
• Sigmar Polke (1941-2010)
• Gerhard Richter (b. 1932)
• Anselm Kiefer (b.1945)
 Neo-Expressionism
Georg Baselitz (b.1938)
•This work was first shown as
Baselitz’s first solo show in 1963 in
Berlin.
•Along with the other 50 works, it was
viewed by the public as obscene.
•This work in particular was
confiscated, the artist and owners of
the gallery fined.
•The artist continues to consider this
his masterwork.
Georg Baselitz, Die grosse Nacht im
Eimer,(The Big Night Down The Drain ),
1962-63. Oil on canvas, 98” x 71”. Royal
Academy of Arts, London.
 Neo-Expressionism
Georg Baselitz (b.1938)
•What was so controversial to the
public is natural for the artist.
•This self-portrait of the artist
masturbating is of no consequence to
the artist who sees exposure of the
body and its functions as non-events,
or at least none that are punishable or
criminal.
•For Baselitz, his work is a
confrontation of postwar Germany.
•His style a direct challenge to the Georg Baselitz, Die grosse Nacht im
American abstraction that dominated Eimer,(The Big Night Down The Drain ),
the arts. 1962-63. Oil on canvas, 98” x 71”. Royal
Academy of Arts, London.
 Neo-Expressionism
Georg Baselitz (b.1938)
•In this detail, one sees the
working of the pigment, the
sculpting of the paint.
•Baselitz infused his painting
with psychological dimension
and utilized his art to
challenge Germany’s
avoidance of reality.
•His works feature anti-
heroes.
•His style features richly Georg Baselitz, Detail of Die grosse Nacht
animated brushwork and im Eimer,(The Big Night Down The Drain ),
diversity of color. 1962-63. Oil on canvas, 98” x 71”. Royal
Academy of Arts, London.
 Neo-Expressionism
• His 1983 painting is an
homage to Die Brücke, a
German Expressionist school
admired by German Neo-
Expressionists.
• Evident in Der Brückenchor is
Baselitz characteristic stroke
and playful canvas, he
became famous for his upside
down canvases.
• Der Brückenchor is
characteristic of the
movement in its vibrant
colors and animated Georg Baselitz, Der Brückenchor, (The
Brücke Chair), 1983. Oil on canvas, 9’2 ½”
brushwork. x 14’ 11”. Private Collection.
 Neo-Expressionism
Georg Baselitz (b.1938)
•Baelitz’s work breathes new life to German
Expressionism of the past in attempt to
escape American abstraction and Soviet
realism.
•His figure of the heroic man, an
iconography he developed throughout
1964-1966 was a symbol of German pride, a
counter to the personalities of American
artists whose work was being pushed on
Europeans in the American campaign for Georg Baselitz, Untitled
cultural dominance and fight against (Figure with Raised Arm),
1982-84. Limewood and oil,
Communism. 8’3” x 28” x 18”. Scottish
National Gallery of Modern
Art, Edinburgh.
 Neo-Expressionism
Georg Baselitz (b.1938)
•His figures, as modeled in the image
figured, are monumental in scale and stand
above a devastated Germany.
•His sculptures were psychological portraits
of all Germans defeated after the war, a little
embarrassed and ashamed for its role.
•His working of the wood is rudimentary and
thus allows the quality of the material to
remain evident.
•He adds minimal color to the body as if only Georg Baselitz, Untitled
(Figure with Raised Arm),
to pronounce certain parts and allowing the 1982-84. Limewood and oil,
natural material to dominate. 8’3” x 28” x 18”. Scottish
National Gallery of Modern
Art, Edinburgh.
 • His figures demand
comparison to the
images created by
Giacometti.
• While Giacometti
exhibits existentialist
angst, Baselitz infuses
his figure with
nationalist pride.
• Giacometti’s Walking
Man I sold at auction
for a staggering $100.4
Georg Baselitz, Untitled
million dollars in (Figure with Raised Arm),
Alberto Giacometti, Walking February 2010 to a 1982-84. Limewood and oil,
Man I, 1960. Bronze, 72” x private collector. 8’3” x 28” x 18”. Scottish
10 3/16” x 37 9/16”. National Gallery of Modern
Collection Lily Safra. Art, Edinburgh.
 Neo-Expressionism
Markus Lüpertz (b. 1941)
•Like his contemporary, Lüpertz used his
painting to establish his independent identity
as an artist reacting most strongly to the Cool
School of the 1960s.
•His style is characterized by vibrant color,
expressionist brushstrokes, and inventive
subject matter.
•His work is political and opinionated.
•He aligned himself with the work of Picabia,
Picasso, and Pollock.
•This image includes his controversial
invented and taboo imagery of German
military paraphernalia and emblems. Markus Lüpertz, Schwarz-Rot-
Gold I, 1974. Distemper on
•His imagery challenges viewers to deal with canvas, 102 ¼” x 78 ¾”. The
history and reality. Albertina, Austria, Vienna.
 Neo-Expressionism
A. R. Penck (b. 1939)
•Penck represents the exiled
artist, his work deals with
having to come to terms with
his identity.
•Self-taught, Penck settled in
the stick-figure as his personal
vocabulary.
•He mixes “human” figures with
primitive-looking graffiti,
hieroglyphs, and folkloric
content.
A. R. Penck, The Red Airplane, 1985. Oil
on canvas, 3’11” x 6’ 10 ½”. Private
Collection.
 Neo-Expressionism
Jörg Immendorff (1945-2007)
•This piece famously called for artists to stop
painting unless political motivated.
•His work rejects traditional painting.
•The artist claimed in 1976, "I am for a form
of art that sees itself as one of the many
means through which human society can be
changed."
•This piece shows the influence of artist
Joseph Beuys, his teacher at the Art
Academy in Dusseldorf.
•His work is socially conscious and
motivated. Jörg Immendorff, Hört auf zu
•His personal style is conceptually based and malen! (Stop Painting), 1966.
highly realistic. Synthetic resin on canvas, 53” x
53”. Collection unpublished.
 Neo-Expressionism
Jörg Immendorff (1945-2007)
•Like Lüpertz, Immendorf frequently used
insignia associated with National Socialist
Germany as clichés, signs for universal
evils.
•His café scenes were usually heavily
filled with political imagery and
iconography.
•Unlike his contemporaries, Immendorf
did not reference Die Brücke or Der Blaue
Reiter but instead looked to the art of
post WWI New Objectivity.

Jörg Immendorff, Café Deutschland I, 1977-78 (top) and

Café Deutschland, 1984 (right). Acrylic on canvas, (left)
9’2” x 10’ 10” and (bottom) 112” x 130”.
 Neo-Expressionism
Jörg Immendorff (1945-2007)
•His most famous works are from his Café
Deutschland series.
•His café scene personify his political agenda.
•Immendorf’s imagery focused on Germans
caught within the contradictions of modern
life and identity.
•Figured here is the artist within a café scene.
•Typical of his imagery, Immendorf makes use
of the classical column to symbolize the
divided Germany.
Jörg Immendorff, Café
•His images pull from post WW I imagery of Deutschland I, 1977-78.
Grosz, Dix, and Beckman. Acrylic on canvas, 9’2” x 10’
10”. Ludwig-Forum für
Internationale Kunst, Aachen,
Germany.
 Neo-Expressionism

Jörg Immendorff (1945-2007)

•In his later works, Immendorf
turns his attention away from the
political as he investigates the
vocabulary of art history.
•This later work admits his own
seduction by the art market

Jörg Immendorff, Door to The Sun,

1994. Oil on Canvas, 110.2” x 110.2”.
 Neo-Expressionism
Sigmar Polke (1941-2010)
•Neo-Expressionist in style, Polke created
Capitalist Realism, a style akin to American
Pop art, along with fellow students of Konrad
Leug.
•Capitalist Realism is Polke’s version of Pop
and was critical of its American counterpart.
•Typical of his 1960s style, Bunnies adopts
the Benday dots of Lichtenstein who had just
introduced them to his own work.
•Works like Bunnies are a direct response to
the infiltration of American culture into
Sigmar Polke, Bunnies, 1966. Acrylic
Germany.
on linen, 59” x 39 ½”. Hirshorn
Museum and Sculpture Garden,
Smithsonian Institution Washington,
D.C.
 Neo-Expressionism
Sigmar Polke (1941-2010)
•He experimented with various media
and styles.
•He uses the Benday dots to draw
attention to the imperfect nature of
his painting.
•Polke’s process included hand
copying enlarged images from popular
media-the result of which were
imperfect dots, again commentary on
the influence of American aesthetic on
German culture. Sigmar Polke, Hochstand
(Watchtower), 1984. Acrylic,
lacquer, and cotton, 10’8” x 7’4”.
Private Collection, NY.
 Neo-Expressionism
Gerhard Richter (b. 1932)
•Along with Polke, Richter
founded the anti-style art
movement, Capitalist Realism.
•His work, Barn No. 549/1
represents his later work and the
artist’s move to create “the most
moronic inartistic thing that
anyone could do.”
•His early work using photographs
strayed little from the image, his
later works saw the artist blur the
image and deviate from the Gerhard Richter, Scheune/Barn No.
“original.” 549/1, 1983. Oil on canvas, 27 ½” x 39
½”. Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto.
 Neo-Expressionism
Gerhard Richter (b. 1932)
•Richter was never committed to one
style.
•After working in his Neo-Expressionist
style in the 1950s, he returned to
abstraction in the 1960s.
•His 1980s style is characterized as
Expressionist abstraction and consists of
images created from detailed photographs
of his own work.
•His process is multi-faceted; he uses not
only brush but scraping, troweling, and
flinging to realize these works.
•For a period in 2011, he was the top
Gerhard Richter, Vase, 1984.
selling living artist, replaced recently by Oil on canvas, 7’4 ½” x 6’ 6 ¾”.
Damien Hirst. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
 Neo-Expressionism

Anselm Kiefer (b. 1945)

•Like Richer, Kiefer studies with Bueys in
the 1970s.
•Under his influence, the artist
integrated unusual materials into his
works including straw, ash, clay, shellac,
and lead.
•Kiefer first began taking photos of
himself visiting various monuments
dressed in Nazi uniform and striking the
Nazi salute.
•These photographs would inspire his
apocalyptical paintings of the following
decades.
Photograph of Anselm Kiefer, c. 1960s.
 Neo-Expressionism
Anselm Kiefer (b. 1945)
•Kiefer integrated unusual materials
into his works including straw, ash, clay,
shellac, and lead.
•Kiefer’s work borrow from Jewish and
German history, even introducing
concepts of the Kabbalah to create his
apocryphal images.
•His imagery frequently makes use of
the battered Earth and studies the
consequences of German history.
•Due to the emphasis on symbolism and
its connection to the past Kiefer’s style
has often been referred to as New Anselm Kiefer, Departure from Egypt,
Symbolism-evoking the 19th century 1984. Oil, straw, lacquer, and lead on
canvas. 12’5” x 18’5”. Museum of
movement. Contemporary Art, L.A.
 Neo-Expressionism
Anselm Kiefer (b.1945)
•Departure from Egypt was inspired by a
1983 trip to Israel
•Drawing from the Old Testament story of
the Exodus, he begins to explore WW II and
the aftereffects on Germany.
•Painted is a vast wasteland covered in
mud and earth-typical imagery for the
artist.
•Other imagery includes a metal staff and
straw, both taken from the Old Testament
and reminders of the painting’s biblical Anselm Kiefer, Departure from
roots. Egypt, 1984. Oil, straw, lacquer,
•His brushwork is vigorous and suggests a and lead on canvas. 12’5” x 18’5”.
Museum of Contemporary Art,
violence. L.A.
 Neo-Expressionism
Anselm Kiefer (b.1945)
•Kiefer was a sculptor as well as painter.
•His sculptures continue his conversation
with the past, taboo subject matter, and
other controversial matters.
•Like his paintings, his sculptures evoke
refuse, appear old and decrepit.
• His “books” are assemblage works made
of lead weighing massive amounts.
•The weight of the work is symbolic of the
history represented in the books and the
weight of it on ourselves.
Anselm Kiefer, Breaking of the Vessels,
1990. Lead, iron, glass, copper wire,
charcoal, and aquatec, 16’ x 6’ x 4’ ½”.
Weight 7 ½ tons. Saint Louis Museum,
Missouri.
Transavanguardia: Italian Neo-Expressionism
• Only Italy was second to Germany in its early fostering of a
Neo-Expressionist style.
• Italian Neo-Expressionism is known as transavanguardia, a
term coined for the movement by art Italian art critic Achille
Bonito Oliva.
• Transavanguardia literally translates to mean “beyond avant-
garde.”
• Like its counterparts, transavanguardia rejects Conceptualism
and Minimalism by reintroducing emotional content, the
figure, and symbolism.
• It is a return to figuration, traditional tools, techniques, and
colors. It is a return to painting.
– The Italian artists’ return to figuration was based on Michelangelo and
Renaissance tradition.
Transavanguardia: Italian Neo-Expressionism

• Transavanguardia artists sought to put an end to expressive

freedoms made with no cultural references.
• Their work pulls from Surrealism, Cubism, Realism, and
Expressionism.
• It looks back to Renaissance and Late Renaissance painting, to
Mannerism and Neo-Classicism.
Transavanguardia: Italian Neo-Expressionism

The primary artists of Transavanguardia are:

•Sandro Chia (b. 1946)
•Fransesco Clemente (b. 1952)
•Enzo Cucchi (b. 1950)
•Nicola de Maria (b. 1954)
•Mimmo Paladino (b. 1948)
•Fernando Leal Audirac (b. 1958)
•Remo Salvadori (b. 1947)
 Transavanguardia

Carlo Maria Mariani (b. 1931)

•Here, Itaian artist Mariani joins
the classical figure with
Renaissance coloring and
Surrealist mood.

Carlo Maria Mariani, La Mano ubbidisce

all'intelletto, 1983. Oil on canvas, .
Collection unpublished.
 Transavanguardia
Sandro Chia (b. 1946)
•Chia drew from the Neo-Classicism
produced in Italy during the 1920s
and 1930s.
•Chia distorts the images created by
artists including Ottone Rosai and
Giorgio de Chirico.
•He challenges the strictness of the
Neo-Classical style and the austerity
of Minimalism through the
introduction of light and comical
subject matter, brilliant color, and
painterly surfaces. Sandro Chia, The Idleness of Sisyphus,
1981. Oil on canvas, in 2 parts: top:
6’9” x 12’ 8 ¼” and bottom: 3’5” x 12’ 8
¼”. Museum of Modern Art, NYC.
 Transavanguardia

Sandro Chia (b. 1946)

•Works like The Idleness of Sisyphus
present contemporary people
within classical storylines.
•The Idleness of Sisyphus represents
the discourse Neo-Expressionist
painters had with modern art in
their attempt to re-introduce grand
narrative.

Sandro Chia, The Idleness of Sisyphus,

1981. Oil on canvas, in 2 parts: top:
6’9” x 12’ 8 ¼” and bottom: 3’5” x 12’ 8
¼”. Museum of Modern Art, NYC.
 Transavanguardia
Fransesco Clemente (b. 1952)
•Came of age while Arte Povera and
Conceptualism were en vogue.
•Unlike these movements, he valued the
figure and sought to breathe new life into
painting-a medium declared dead with
Conceptualist aesthetic.
•Typical of Neo-Expressionist subject
matter is Semen.
•Like Baselitz he takes the personal
subject matter of masturbation as a
metaphor to examine masculinity in the
postmodern era.
•The incomplete nature of the image
lends itself to the moment depicted. Fransesco Clemente, Semen, 1983. Oil
on linen, 7’9” x13’. Private Collection.
 Transavanguardia
Fransesco Clemente (b. 1952)
•This later work represents the artist at the
height of his sensual creativity.
•Its exoticism is typical of his style, followed
by the sexual nature of its subject, and
hybridity of form.
•The artist uses color and form to exaggerate
an element of anxiety and violence.
•This is aided by the presence of the scissors
and fragmentation of the bodies presented
by the artist.
•Clemente’s visual metaphor is grounded in
the form.
Fransesco Clemente, Scissors and
•His take on the three graces evokes a cynical Butterflies, 1999. Oil on linen, 92” x
postmodern mood. 92”. Solomon R. Guggenheim
Museum, NY.
 American Neo-Expressionism
• American Neo-Expressionism is driven in its reaction to
Minimalist and Conceptualist aesthetics.
• Neo-Expressionism brought with it a renewed interest in the
love of bold gesture, large-scale and heroic proportions,
reintroduction of mythic content, and a return to figuration.
• This was all in response to the vacancy of Conceptualism and
Minimalism.
• 1980s America was witness once again to heroic art, art with
religious content and the figure.
– This helped to renew an interest in “high” art.
 American Neo-Expressionism
• Julian Schnabel (b. 1951)
• David Salle (b. 1952)
• Eric Fischl (b. 1948)
 American Neo-Expressionism

Julian Schnabel (b. 1951)

I'm the closest thing to Picasso

that you'll see in this fucking
life.
-Julian Schnabel

Julian Schnabel, The Sea, 1981. Oil on wood, with

Mexican pots and plaster. 9’ x 13’. Saatchi Gallery.
 American Neo-Expressionism
Julian Schnabel (b. 1951)
•Schnabel’s work is indicative of Neo-
Expressionist tendencies in America.
•Amongst 1980s artist, he was a rock star.
•He is best known for his work that combines
three dimensional material on a two dimensional
surface, objects including broken plates and
saucers on canvas.
– These became known as his plate pieces.

•Schnabel’s work joined thematic content with

traditional high art. Julian Schnabel, Hopper, 1999.
•His portrait of actor/artist Dennis Hopper joins Mixed media (oil, wax, bondo
and ceramic plates on wood),
postmodern crisis with pop culture and 72½” x 60½” x 5”. The Dennis
traditional portrait painting. Hopper Collection.
 American Neo-Expressionism
Julian Schnabel (b. 1951)
•Schnabel’s work is indicative of Neo-
Expressionist tendencies in America.
•Amongst 1980s artist, he was a rock
star.
•He is best known for his work that
combines three dimensional material
on a two dimensional surface, objects
including broken plates and saucers on
canvas.
•Schnabel’s work joined thematic
content with traditional high art. Julian Schnabel, The Sea, 1981. Oil on
wood, with Mexican pots and plaster.
9’ x 13’. Saatchi Gallery.
• Schnabel’s signature style was inspired by the work of Catalan
architect, Antoni Gaudí.

Julian Schnabel, The Sea, 1981. Oil on

Antoni Gaudi, Detail of surrounding wall, Güell wood, with Mexican pots and plaster.
Park, 1900-1915. Barcelona. 9’ x 13’. Saatchi Gallery.
 American Neo-Expressionism
David Salle (b. 1952)
•Salle’s work helps define
postmodern sensibility in its
marrying of figuration with varying
pictorial language.
•His work is some of the more
controversial of Neo-Expressionists.
•In Tennyson, Salle combines
Conceptual background and
stenciling with Duchampian found
objects (the wood ear), and nude
female body strewn across a
Colorfield backdrop.
David Salle, Tennyson, 1983. Oil and
acrylic on canvas, 6’6” x 9’9”. Private
Collection, NY.
 American Neo-Expressionism
David Salle (b. 1952)
•In postmodern style, Salle’s work
joins the erotic image of a female, the
name of a Victorian poet, and the
found object.
•Like Rauschenberg’s combine
paintings, Salle juxtaposes the
seemingly unrelated to realize his
work.
•Opting to use poses more commonly
associated with pornography than the
history of the nude in art, Salle’s work
is critical of the position the female
nude has been relegated to
David Salle, Tennyson, 1983. Oil and
throughout art history.
acrylic on canvas, 6’6” x 9’9”. Private
Collection, NY.
• What may seem random may actually capture the artist’s
connection to Neo-Dada artist, Japer Johns.
• Like John’s Salle figures Tennyson’s name stenciled on his canvas.

Jasper Johns, Tennyson, 1958.

Encaustic and collage on canvas. 73
David Salle, Tennyson, 1983. Oil and acrylic on
½” x 48 ¼”. Des Moines Art Center,
canvas, 6’6” x 9’9”. Private Collection, NY.
IA.
• Salle also makes reference to Johns
through his inclusion of the ear which was
featured in several of Johns’ target pieces.

Jasper Johns, Target with Plaster Casts,

1955. Encaustic and collage on canvas
with wood construction and plaster
David Salle, Tennyson, 1983. Oil and acrylic on casts. 51” x 44” s 3 ½”. Leo Castelli
canvas, 6’6” x 9’9”. Private Collection, NY. Gallery, NY.
 American Neo-Expressionism
Eric Fischl (b. 1948)
•Fischl shared Salle’s concern over the
human form and makes it the focus of his
paintings he refers to as his “fleschscapes.”
•His personal upbringing amidst alcoholism
and the county-club lifestyle fuels his art.
•His paintings present an upper middle class
cast self-absorbed yet aware.
•His imagery parallels the superficial
lifestyle led by those that value image over
content, something he echoes in the design
of his compositions.
Eric Fischl, The Old Man’s Boat and
the Old Man’s Dog, 1982. Oil on
canvas, 7’ x 7’. Collection Mr. and
Mrs. Robert Lehtam, Washington,
D.C.
 • Like early modern American masters Hopper and Homer, Fischl’s
work investigates the place of alienation in America.
• His paintings go beyond this too in their exploration of subjects like
alcoholism, voyeurism, decadence, homosexuality, and incest.

Eric Fischl, The Old Man’s Boat and the

Old Man’s Dog, 1982. Oil on canvas, 7’ Thomas Eakins, The Swimming Hole,
x 7’. Collection Mr. and Mrs. Robert 1885. Oil on canvas, 27⅜ in × 36⅜. Amon
Lehtam, Washington, D.C. Carter Museum, Fort Worth TX.
 American Neo-Expressionism

Eric Fischl (b. 1948)

•His style is at once expressionist yet
tied to traditions of Realism.
•Fischl’s India series is a
postcolonialist deconstruction of
Orientalism prevalent in 19th century
practice and art.
•Fischl conceptualizes his images not
in the tradition of Ingres or Delacroix,
but as tourist snapshots of another
world.
Eric Fischl, On the Stairs of the Temple,
1989. Oil on canvas, 11’8” x 9’7”.
Private Collection.
 American Neo-Expressionism

Eric Fischl (b. 1948)

•He presents his viewer with an
interesting image-we at once
criticize a culture for its
practices yet are placed in the
position of wanting to see this
woman, to consume her and
are thrust into the position of
the voyeur and become aware
of our role in marginalizing this
woman as “Other.”

Eric Fischl, On the Stairs of the Temple, 1989.

Oil on canvas, 11’8” x 9’7”. Private Collection.
Graffiti/Cartoon Artists and the East Village Art
Scene

• Keith Haring (1958-1990)

• Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988)
• David Wojnarowicz (1954-1992)
 Graffiti Art
Keith Haring (1958-1990)
•Haring was a graffiti artist whose artwork
responded to New York City street culture
in the 1980s.
•He was a social activist and artist.
•Haring’s first claim to notoriety was had
through his chalk drawings in the NYC
subway.
•The artist would draw over already
existing advertisements or removed ones
with his iconic images of what are best
described as filled out stick figures.
•His figures are archetypical images
reminiscent to cartoon figures. Keith Haring, One Man Show,
1982. Installation view.
 Graffiti Art
• Radiant Baby derives from religious imagery of the Virgin of
Guadalupe represented with rays to pronounce holiness.

Gonzalo Corrasco, Queen of

America, early 20th C
Oil on canvas. Guadalupe, Keith Haring, Radiant Baby,
Arizona, Basilica de Guadalupe. c. 1989.
 Graffiti Art
Keith Haring (1958-1990)
•Radiant Baby was born in the early 1980s
after Haring moved to NYC and began
painting in the subway.
•His process was fast paced as he was usually
drawing on the fly to avoid being arrested for
defacing property.
•He used Magic Marker or black sumi ink and
worked on paper, fiberglass, oak tag, and
vinyl tarp-easily accessible materials.
•Like Oldenburg he opened a shop called the
Pop Shop to make art available to those who
normally could not afford it.
•Haring provided a link from the art world he
criticized to the street artists of graffiti. Keith Haring, Radiant Baby,
c. 1989.
 Graffiti Art
Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988)
• Contemporary to Haring is
Basquiat.
• Basquiat rose to fame over
night-he literally went from
painting on doorways in alleys
to selling out shows with
canvases still wet.
• His work represents 1980s
graffiti artist usurped by the
art market.
• Like Haring, his imagery is
personal.
• His painting style is gestural Jean-Michel Basquiat, Grillo, 1984. Oil on
and animated. wood with nails, 8’ x 17’ 6 ½” x 1’ 6”. Stefan
T. Edlis Collection, Chicago.
 Graffiti Art
Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988)
• While still living on the streets of
NY, Basquiat entered a
partnership and invented the tag
SAMO for Same Old Shit.
• SAMO was an expression of the
frustration Basquiat felt as a black
man trying to make it in the art
world.
• SAMO was originally developed
by Basquiat with friend Al Diaz,
and Shannon Dawson while
attending City as School High
School, Brooklyn. Jean-Michel Basquiat, Photograph of
SAMO moniker. Photograph taken by
Henry Flynt, c. 1979.
 Graffiti Art

Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988)

•SAMO was used from 1977-1980 by
the trio of Basquiat, Diaz, and
Dawson.
•The tag was usually accompanied
by some form of sarcastic prose.
•Artist, philosopher, and musician
Henry Flynt began photographing
SAMO in 1979 not realizing whose
work he was photographing.
•All images published here are from
his collection.
Henry Flynt’s photographs of SAMO
works, c. 1979.
 Graffiti Art
Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988)
• His gallery work included schematic
drawings of the figure-usually African
with African masks for the face.
• His designs were rich in color and
varied in imagery.
• He often included snarky phrases
with his figures in typical graffiti
fashion.
• His symbols were diverse and
colloquial.
• The expressive quality and content of
his work situate the artist within the Jean-Michel Basquiat, Grillo, 1984.
Oil on wood with nails, 8’ x 17’ 6 ½”
Neo-Expressionist tendencies of the x 1’ 6”. Stefan T. Edlis Collection,
1980s. Chicago.
 Graffiti Art

Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988)

•In 1984, Basquiat partnered with
Andy Warhol on several projects.
•Here the artists are featured
combining their personal styles of Pop
sensibility with the scribble style of
graffiti art.

Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy

Warhol, Felix the Cat,
1984-1985. Acrylic on Canvas,
9'8" X 13’. Burkhard Maus,
Germany.
 Graffiti Art
David Wojnarowicz (1954-1992)
•Wojnarowicz, like Haring and
Basquiat, also came of age in the time
of AIDS, drug epidemics, and
homophobia.
•Much of his work is about the pain
of growing us gay in America.
•His work is biting and controversial.
•He was extremely literate and used
his intellect to create images that
condemn American politics and
policy.
•His work fuses a Romanticism with
the images of urban living. David Wojnarowicz, Fire, 1987. Acrylic
and mixed media on wood, 72” x 96”.
Museum of Modern Art, NYC.
 Graffiti Art

David Wojnarowicz (1954-1992)

•Like many graffiti artists, his imagery
is cartoon-like in its style.
•Fire, created the year both he found
out he had AIDS and his partner died
of the disease is an abrasive pairing of
the natural and man made.
•The work has been interpreted as
the artist’s belief of what would be
necessary to create sense in the
world.

David Wojnarowicz, Fire, 1987. Acrylic

and mixed media on wood, 72” x 96”.
Museum of Modern Art, NYC.
 American Realism in the 90s
• Artists John Currin and Lisa Yuskavage both attended Yale
University in the mid-1980s.
• Their styles are similar and so is their subject matter.
• Both artists confront issues of contemporary identity-issues
with the body, most especially.
• They work from similar material-Cosmopolitan, Playboy and
Hustler, and art history.
• Their work is satirical and offensive
• Each committed to the figure at a time when overtly political
art was the fashion.
 Realism in the 90s
●John Currin (b. 1962)
● Lisa Yuskavage (b. 1962)
 Contemporary Realism
John Currin (b. 1962)
•Currin developed his satirical style of
figurative painting while a graduate
student at Yale.
•He is best known for his figurative
paintings which deal with provocative
sexual and social themes in a technically
skillful manner.
•The subject of his images is the psyche
of the typical middle-class white
American male.
•He traces his lineage through a
tradition of figuration that excludes
Courbet and his legacy. John Currin, The Cripple, 1997. Oil
on canvas, 3’ 8” x 3’. Hort Family
Collection.
• Currin pulls from traditional imagery of the female form.
• Here he creates a contemporary image drawing from Lucas
Cranach’s Renaissance iconography of the nude with diaphanous
veil.

Lucas Cranach, Venus, 11529. Oil John Currin, The Veil, 1999. Oil on
on wood, 15” x 10”. Musée du canvas, .Carnegie Museum of Art,
Louvre, Paris. Pittsburgh.
 John Currin, The Bra Shop, 1997. Oil on canvas, 48” x 38”.

• He is best known however for his paintings that

capture the juvenile fantasies of the straight
American male.

• His images however infuse the fantastical with

the grotesque as the over-exaggerated features
of the female form are comically enhanced to the
point of discomfort.
• He notes however that he pulls his inspiration
images from issues of Cosmopolitan and Playboy,
even the canon of art history.

John Currin, Jaunty & Mame, 1997. Oil on canvas, 48” x 36”.
Saatchi Gallery, London.
Lisa Yuskavage (b. 1962)
•Like her contemporary, Yuskavage
creates overly exaggerated illogical
female.
•Her images are saccharinized versions of
those found in the pages of Playboy and
Hustler.
•Yuskavage’s images are more
introverted with the images of woman
quite often reviewing their bodies or
waiting for their suggested (male)
partner. Lisa Yuskavage, Honeymoon,
1998. Oil on linen, 6’ 5 ½” x
4’ 7”. Private Collection.
• Yuskavage’s imagery is a deconstruction of the sexist imagery
often associated with pornography.

Lisa Yuskavage, Day (detail),

Lisa Yuskavage, various images. David Zwirner 1999-2000. Oil on linen, 77” x 62”.
Gallery, NY.
Lisa Yuskavage (b. 1962)
•Her images, lik Currin’s demonstrate
skill of hand and understanding of color
and design.
•Here, the robe the figure wears echoes
the color of the mountains in the
background.
•To achieve the atmospheric
perspective the artist employs
chiaroscuro and employs sfumato to
create the dreamy haze that covers the
room. Lisa Yuskavage, Honeymoon, 1998.
Oil on linen, 6’ 5 ½” x 4’ 7”. Private
Collection.