FREE ESSAY ON NEO_EXPRESSIONISM

NEO_EXPRESSIONISM

The term neo-expressionism describes the art movement that dominated the art market in the
early and mid 1980's. The word "neo" refers to a revival of previous ideas or trends.
Expressionism was a style from around the time of World War 1 that was highly personal,
and was often executed with violent fervor. Neo-expressionism is similar, and also
generally uses bright colors, recognizable objects (such as the human body) with
distorted representation, great expression of emotion, and often commentary on social
issues. It usually is not realistic. The common subject matter often deals with the
negative aspects of life: vulgarities, violence, cynicism, and brutality. It is full of
symbolism, and is considered figurative and gestural. A varied assemblage of young
artists portrayed the human body in reaction and in contrast to the remote, introverted,
and highly intellectualized abstract art production in the 1970's. The original goal of
these artists was to depict emotional and psychological concerns of themselves and their
times. This is often achieved by using heavy black outlines to express anger and
hostility in addition to strong contrasts of the bold colors. Other artists explored
color and abstraction to express spiritual and/or mystical ideas. Other common traits
presented in paintings of this style included: a rejection of traditional standards of
composition and design, the use of vivid but jarringly banal color harmonies, and a
simultaneously tense and playful presentation of objects in a primitivist manner that
communicates a sense of inner disturbance, tension, alienation, and ambiguity. This
movement was also linked to and in part generated by new and aggressive methods of
salesmanship, media promotion, and marketing on the part of dealers and galleries. It was
controversial both in the quality of its art products and in the highly commercialized
aspects of its presentation to the art-buying public. 
There are several artists that dominated and accurately represented neo-expressionism.
Some of these artists are Sandro Chia, Georg Baselitz, Immendorff, Francoise Arthus,
David Salle, and Terry Marks.
The 5 elements of art are easy to recognize in this style of art. Line is used to create
the shape that represents the objects of recognizable nature in the painting. The use of
Color is quite obvious. Because most colors are bold and contrasting, a lot of times
there aren't a lot of variations in value. The colors used often add to the non-realistic
elements of the painting. Texture isn't a big issue in neo-expressionist paintings,
though. 
Personally, I really like this style. It's easy for me to relate to it, and to create my
own paintings representative of it. I like the colors used, and the freedom to express
emotion and feeling. There really are no limits to what you can do with this style.
Bibliography
The 20th Century Art Book. London: Phaidon Press Limited, 1996.
brommer, Gerald F. Discovering Art History. 3rd Ed. Worchester, MA: Davis 
Publications, Inc., 1997.
Neo-expressionism. [Online] Available
http://www.optonline.com/comptons/ceo/26699_Q.html,
April 4, 2000.
Encyclopaedia Britannica | article page. [Online] Available
http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/idxref/7/0,5716,583318,00.html, April 4, 2ooo.
ArtsNet Minnesota: inner Worlds Vocabulary. [Online] Available
http://www.artsnetmn.org/inner/iwvocab.html, April 4, 2000
Avignon et Provence - Francoise Arthus. [Online] Available
http://www.avignon-et-provence.com/avi/gb/expo/artiste/arthus/loacoon.htm, April 4,
2000.
Terry Marks. [Online] Available 
http://www.artincontext.org/LISTINGS/IMAGES/FULL/3/P5BV6O3T.htm, April 4, 2000.