Neo-Expressionism and the Return of Painting

Andy Warhol, Muhammad Ali, 1977. Synthetic polymer paint and silkscreen ink on canvas, 40 x 40"

(left) David Salle (US, b. 1952), His Brain, 1984, oil and acrylic on canvas, acrylic on fabric, two panels, 9 ft 9 in x 8 ft 10 in overall [PICTURES GENERATION](right) compare Salle with James Rosenquist (US, b. 1933), President Elect, 1960-1 and (right below) Sigmar Polke (German, 1941), Alice in Wonderland, 1971

David Salle, Géricault’s Arm, 1985, oil and synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 6' 57∕8” x 8' 1∕4" The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Eric Fischl (US, b. 1948) Bad Boy, 1981, oil on canvas, 5ft 6in x

8ftdecadent suburbia

Edgar Degas, Interior,1868-9Secret brutalities of middle classlives

Eric Fischl, Sleepwalker, 1979, oil on canvas

“What’s an adolescent boy’s masturbation about anyway if it’s not, in some sense, a separation technique? He’s separating from his parents. He’s becoming aware of himself.”

- Fischl

Eric Fischl, A Visit to / A Visit from / The Island, oil on canvas, 84 x 168 inches, 1983

(left) Eric Fischl, Bedroom Scene #7 (After the Tantrum, Unholy News) 2004, oil on linen, 65 x 98 in. From photographic series, The Krefeld Project, (right) compare Edouard Manet (French,1832-1883), In the Garden, 1879, oil on canvas, 115 x 150 cm “The Painter of Modern Life”

For several days two actors posed for artist in Museum Haus Esters in Krefeld, Germany, which was designed by Mies van der Rohe in 1928 to be a private home. Furnished for the shoots by the artist.

Eric Fischl, Krefeld Project: Dining Room Scene 2, 2003, oil on Linen, 89 x 124 inches.

Fischl, Bedroom Scene #1, 2003, from photographic series: “The Krefeld Project” (2002)(right) compare Edward Hopper (US, 1882-1967), Hotel Room, 1931, oil on linen

Jean-Michel Basquiat (US, 1960 - 1988) in his studio, 1985 (25 years old)

1996 movie directed by Julian Schnabel

In 1977 Basquiat started to spray paint cryptic sayings on subway trains and around lower Manhattan and signing them with the name SAMO© (Same Old

Shit). This video still is from 1981

"SAMO© as an end to mindwash religion, nowhere politics, and bogus philosophy…. SAMO© saves idiots“

Basquait

June 1980, more than a hundred artists, including graffiti artist, SAMO, installed their work in an empty massage parlor near Times Square.

Poster for a 1980 movie

Times Square Show, 2nd floor with paintings by Tom Otterness announcing types of art inside

Jean-Michel Basquiat, Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump, 1982, Acrylic, oil paintstick, and spray paint on canvas, 7ft 10in x 13ft 9in

“Basquiat’s work gives that private anguish artistic expression.” bell hooks

Jean-Michel Basquiat, Charles the First, 1982, acrylic and oilstick on canvas, triptych, 6ft 6in x 5ft 2in

Nkisi Nkondi of the Kongopeople of West Central Africa. From the collection of the Brooklyn Museum. Nkondi is the hunter who tracks down evil doers.

Jean-Michel Basquiat, Grillo, 1984, oil, acrylic, oilstick, photocopy collage, and nails on wood (in four parts), 96 x 211 1∕2 x 18"

Basquiat and Warhol in 1984. Warhol dies in 1987. 1985

Basquiat portrait by Warhol, 1984

Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol, Untitled, 1985. Synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 116 7∕8 x 165 3∕8"

Endof Modern Art in Nazi Germany 1933-45(left) Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (German Expressionist,1880-1938) Girl Under a Japanese Umbrella, 1906, oil, 36 x 31”(right) Emil Nolde (German, 1867-1956), Excited People, 1910(below) Degenerate Art Exhibition, 1937

The poster of the Degenerate Music exhibition (1938). Jewish Composers and Jazz/Swing musicians were, for instance, accused by the Nazis to produce "degenerated music"...

Marc Chagall, Purim, 1916-18, oil, 20 x 28 in, exhibited in Nazi Degenerate Art Exhibition

Composition with Blue, 1926Piet Mondrian, oil, 24 in. sq

“Good German Art” – Nazi art

Joseph Beuys, How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare,1965 performance in Düsseldorf

Anselm Kiefer (German b. 1945), Occupations, from the photographic series, 1969(below, left) Kiefer, Heroic Symbols, 1969, watercolor and gouache on paper, left sheet:

6 in. sq., right sheet: 22 x 16 in.

This small self-portrait of the artist giving the Nazi salute is pasted on the same sheet as the watercolor of the sky, which, according to the artist, has been wounded by shots.

Anselm Kiefer The Milky Way, 1985-87Emulsion paint, oil, acrylic, shellac on canvas with applied wires and lead, 12ft 6in H

Anselm Kiefer, Inner Room, 1981 with (left) source photo of Nazi meeting room, Albert Speer architect

Anselm Kiefer, Your Golden Hair, Margarete, 1981, oil, emulsion, and straw on canvas, 51 x 67”

Anslem Kiefer Twilight of the West [Abendland] 1989, lead sheet, synthetic polymer paint, ash, plaster, cement, earth, varnish on canvas and wood, 400 cm H

Gerhard Richter and Konrad Lueg, Living With Pop, 1963: a performance of “Capitalist Realism”

A group of artists in Düsseldorf mounted an installation of objects in a local department store, installing themselves as well amidst these commodities as a demonstration of

"Capitalist Realism." What earlier, state-supported realisms was this "Capitalist Realism" responding to?

(left) Richter and Sigmar Polke, 1965, from Richter/Polke exhibition catalogue(right) Richter, 1998, from Gerhard Richter: 40 Years of Painting exhibition cat.

Gerhard Richter (b. Dresden, 1932), [Nazi officer] Uncle Rudi, 1965, oil on canvas(right) Administrative Building, 1964, Oil on canvas, 38 1/4 x 59 “

photo sources – family snapshot and encyclopedia

“I believe in nothing”

Richter, Aunt Marianne, oil on canvas, 1965, 47 x 51 infrom a photograph of Richter as a baby with Aunt Marianne

“Whenever I behaved badly I was told you will become like crazy Marianne.”

Richter, Phantom Interceptors, 1964, oil on canvas, 55" x 6' 3“(right) Alpha Romeo (With Text), 1965, oil on canvas, 60 x 59”

3.2 Gerhard Richter, Annunciation After Titian, 1973. Oil on canvas, 49 1∕4 x 78 3∕4" (125 x 200 cm). Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. Courtesy Atelier

Gerhard Richter.

(left) Richter, Iceberg in Fog, 1982, oil on canvas, 27 x 39 incompare (left) Caspar David Friedrich (German Romantic Painter, 1774-1840)

(top) Monk by the Sea (1809) and (bottom) Polar Sea (1823)

Gerhard Richter, Untitled, 1987, oil on canvas, 118” square

Richter, Betty, 1988, oil on canvas, 40 x 23“ compare (right) Untitled, 1987

“Painting is the form of the picture, you might say. The picture is the depiction, and painting is the technique for shattering it.”

Sigmar Polke (German, b. 1941), Modern Art, 1968(right) Polke, Lovers II, 1965, oil and enamel on canvas, 6 ft 3 in x 55 in

Sigmar Polke, Bunnies, 1966, acrylic on linen, 58 x 39”

Lichtenstein, coverOf Newsweek, 1966

Warhol, "Marilyn," 1964

Sigmar Polke, from Watchtower series, 1984, synthetic polymers on various fabrics

Polke, The Spirits That Lend Strength Are Invisible III (Nickel/Neusilber), 1988, nickel and artificial resin on canvas, 157in. x 118 in. Collection SFMOMA

Georg Baselitz (Hans-Georg Kern, b. Dresden, Germany,1938) The New Type, 1966, woodcut, 42 x 34 in

compare (center below) Emil Nolde, The Prophet, 1912, woodcut;(right) Erich Heckel (German, 1883–1970) Crouching Woman, 1914, woodcut

Georg Baselitz, The Gleaner, 1978, oil and tempera on canvas, 130 x 98 in

Van Gogh, The Gleaner1885

Baselitz, Lazarus, 1984

Georg Baselitz with Neo-Expressionist (Neo-Primitivist) sculpture, Man (1980s) and source in Sudanese traditional sculpture

(right) Kirchner (German Expressionist), Dancer, 1914

Jörg Immendorff (b. 1941 Silesia, East Germany, now Poland), Can one change anything with these?, 1972, acrylic on canvas, 20 x 31 ½ in

Joseph Beuys lecturing in NYC,1974

Jörg Immendorff (b. 1941 Silesia, now Poland) , Café Deutschland I, 1978, oil on canvas, 280 x 320 cm

Compare Expressionism of Max Beckmann, Night, 1917-18 with Neo-Expressionism of Immendorff, Café Deutschland I, 1978

What do they have in common in form and content?

Jörg Immendorf, Café Deutschland IV, 1978, oil on canvas, 111 x 130 in. Distopia

Blade Runner, film still, 1982

Immendorff, Café Deutschland – Cafeprobe, 1980synthetic resin on canvas, 280 x 350 cm

Jörg Immendorff, Café Deutschland, 1984, oil, 285 cm high(right) Georg Grosz, Metropolis, 1917