Painting Movement

Neo-Expressionism

Neo-Expressionism revived large, emotionally charged painting in the late 1970s and 1980s, often combining rough gestures with figurative imagery.

Neo-Expressionism quick facts

Neo-Expressionism revived large expressive canvases in the late 1970s and 1980s, often pairing forceful brushwork with figures and historical imagery.

Neo-Expressionism quick facts
Origin	Multiple centers, including West Germany, Italy, and the United States
Approximate period	Late 1970s–1980s (with later influence)
Classification	A loose international revival of expressive painting, not a formal group.
Historical context	A renewed focus on painting followed the prominence of Minimalism and Conceptual art. Georg Baselitz was an important earlier influence.
Common subjects	Subjects range from figures and portraits to mythological, historical, autobiographical, and political imagery; choices varied by artist.
Defining characteristics	Forceful brushwork, exaggerated figures, high contrast, layered images, and historical or cultural references
Paint types	Oil paint and acrylic paint in documented paintings; gouache in Kiefer's paper work.
Painting surfaces	Canvas, paper, and wood supports are documented; Schnabel also assembled plaster and objects.
Painting methods	Painters used energetic brushwork, thick paint, scraping, and overpainting; materials and handling varied widely.
Famous painters	Jean-Michel Basquiat, Julian Schnabel, Anselm Kiefer, and Francesco Clemente
Representative works	Kiefer's Ride to the Vistula (1980), Schnabel's Bones and Trumpets Rubbing Against Each Other Towards Infinity (1981), and Basquiat's “LNAPRK” (1982)

Sources: The Met: Schnabel's 1981 painting, Guggenheim: Julian Schnabel, Whitney: Painting from the 1980s, MoMA: Kiefer's oil painting, Whitney: Basquiat's mixed paint media, and MoMA: Kiefer's gouache study.

Paint types in Neo-Expressionism

Neo-Expressionist artists mixed oil, acrylic, and found materials, while works on paper document separate uses of gouache and synthetic paints.

Oil paint

Anselm Kiefer's Ride to the Vistula (1980) is oil on canvas and connects expressive painting with German history and memory. Julian Schnabel's Bones and Trumpets Rubbing Against Each Other Towards Infinity (1981) incorporates oil and wax into an uneven construction of plaster, pottery fragments, antlers, and wood. Those added objects are not separate paint types.
Acrylic paint

Jean-Michel Basquiat's “LNAPRK” (1982) combines acrylic and oil with oil stick and marker on found paper mounted to canvas and wood, with rope. The Whitney documents these individual materials rather than describing the entire layered work simply as acrylic on canvas.
Gouache paint

Kiefer used gouache with watercolor, synthetic polymer paint, oil stick, and pencil in Des Malers Atelier (1980), a mixed-media work on paper. MoMA identifies the polymer paint separately without naming its binder as acrylic; the gouache is documented for this particular paper work.

Sources: MoMA: Kiefer's Ride to the Vistula, The Met: Schnabel's mixed-media Bones and Trumpets, Whitney: Basquiat's “LNAPRK”, and MoMA: Kiefer's gouache-containing Des Malers Atelier.

Famous painters from Neo-Expressionism

These Neo-Expressionist painters worked independently, with varied subjects, materials, and cultural influences rather than a shared formal program.

Jean-Michel Basquiat

Basquiat's paintings mix handwritten words, crowns, anatomy, and historical references across rough, layered surfaces. His Neo-Expressionist work brings the urgency of graffiti and street culture into large canvases, using fractured signs and figures to address race, power, and history.
Julian Schnabel

Schnabel attached broken plates and other materials to large canvases, then painted over their uneven surfaces with expressive figures and marks. This material scale helped define one strand of Neo-Expressionism, where image, support, and physical texture became inseparable.
Anselm Kiefer

Kiefer combines paint with straw, lead, ash, and other materials to build dense surfaces around German history, memory, and myth. His Neo-Expressionist canvases retain recognizable landscapes and symbols while making their heavy textures part of the subject.
Francesco Clemente

Clemente's dreamlike figures, portraits, and symbols draw on imagery encountered across Italy, India, and New York. His Neo-Expressionist paintings favor expressive bodies and saturated color, while his varied settings and references distinguish his work from a single national style.