During World War II, Adolf Hitler wanted to control thoughts, so he described any art against Nazism as Degenerate Art, and even banned Modern art exhibiting in museums, which contributed art in German stopped developing. After the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler collapsed, art in German started to revive, and the new art movement, Neo-Expressionism, began developing in 1960s and prospered in 1970s to 1980s. East Germany artist Werner Tübke and Willi Sitte were referred as the first ones whose works obtained Expressionism styles. Then Georg Baselitz was he was expelled for sociopolitical immaturity. Georg Baselitz opened an exhibition in West Berlin in 1963, because his works were so controversial that got the public’s attention. When politics and history are the elements of creating, it makes the basis of Neo-Expressionism.
The Neo-Expressionism artists are based on those were born before/during World War II. They emphasize inner feelings, history, culture, and pursue free and multi in creating. The Neo-Expressionist artists depicted their subjects in an almost raw and brutish manner, newly resurrecting in their frequently large-scale works, the highly textural and expressive brushwork and intense colors that had been rejected by the immediately preceding art movements.
Associated with the label were artists such as Georg Baselitz, Markus Lüpertz, Anselm Kiefer, Sigmar Polke, A.R.Penck, Jörg Immendorff and Gerhard Richter. Then the movement soon influenced around the world, such as Italy artist Francesco Clemente, Enzo Cucchi and so on.
Baselitz is an important representative of German neo-expressionism, working with other artists such as Markus Lüpertz and Anselm Kiefer, and Gerhard Richter. German neo-expressionism began in the 1960s, and really took off in the 1980s. The theories and ideas of the movement were deeply influenced by the events of WWII, the Cold War, and the Vietnam War. Artworks from this group focused on critical social issues, and questions about expression of German nationality, and have left an indelible mark on contemporary art today.
Georg Baselitz, 1938
Baselitz held his first solo exhibition in Berlin in 1963. However, the sexual content of the works "Naked Man, 1962" and "Big Night Down the Drain, 1962/63" enraged conservatives party at that time, so the works were taken by the government. "Big Night Down the Drain, 1962/63" depicts a male dwarf who is masturbating, directly showing sexual, violent and brutal. The painting was returned until 1966 and is currently collected by Museum Ludwig Köln in Cologne, Germany. Later, Baselitz started to invert his paintings. The objects in his paintings are upside down as if there is no gravity. The heavy brush stroke gained some weight for his works, striking a strange balance. The psychological shadow caused by the war is just as the instability and uncertainty brought by the upside-down image. Last March, Baselitz’s "Follow the Red Flag, 1965" (MIT ROTER FAHNE, WITH RED FLAG) was sold at London Sotheby’s for a personal record breaking 9.08 million US dollars (about NT $ 208 million).
Sigmar Polke, 1941-2010
The most famous incident of Sigmar Polke is that he held Kapitalistischen Realismus movement with Gerhard Richter during 1960s. He settled down in West Germany with his family, and the impact of Capitalism impressed him. To satirize consumer culture, he decided to use some popular images in his works. His styles are different from time to time. During his early life, he tried to criticize Capitalism and Communism. In 1970s, he paid attention on current politic issues, so he turned to photography. In 1980s, he returned to paintings, and started using different chemical substances reacting on canvas. Sigmar Polke’s ideas has deep influence on young-generation American artists, such as Julian Schnabel, David Salle.
Markus Lüpertz, 1941-
Comparing to other Neo-Expressionism artists, subjects of Lüpertz’ works are much more abundant, for his styles experiencing several major transformations. In 1960s, he started to work on Dithyrambic series with intense personal styles. 1970s, he turned to German objects, he painted a lot of Military caps, helmets, and shovels to represent Germany. 1980s, he painted about history and myths. In his artistic life, he always pursued a painting form with more sensitivity and icons. What’s interesting, Lüpertz turned down the invitation of the 6th Kassel Documenta in 1977 with no reasons. However, while in 1982, he changed his mind and participated in the 7th Kassel Documenta.
Anselm Kiefer, 1945-
Kiefer studied with art master Joseph Beuys in 1970s. The great attribute to social movement of Joseph Beuys had deeply influenced Kiefer. Kiefer didn't limit his materials, and he used a lot of natural and organic substances, such as straws, dust, metal. His work, Dem Unbekannten Maler (To the Unknown Painter) painted in 1983, was sold at 2011’s New York Christis’s for $3.5 million (about NT $ 100 million).
A.R.Penck, 1939-2017
A.R. Penck is best known for his paintings and sculptures characterized by simplified figures and forms, and neo-primitive symbols and patterns. To escape from the control of East Germany government, he changed his name from Ralf Winkler to A.R. Penck, and formally adopted it in 1968. Because of East Germany government, Penck couldn't exhibit works in public, and then he was expelled to West Germany. He made some artist friends there, like Jörg Immendorff, Markus Lüpertz and so on.
Jörg Immendorff, 1945-2007
Immendorff studied at the Art Academy in Düsseldorf. In the beginning, he studied for three terms with the theater designer Teo Otto. After Otto threw him out of his class for refusing to let one of his paintings serve as stage-set decoration, Immendorff was accepted as a student by Joseph Beuys. The academy expelled him because of some of his (left-wing) political activities and neo-dadaist actions. Until 1970s, he came back to paint. His works are about politics. Take his works Café Deutschland for example. He painted his pain after Germany split, with symbolic images, showing the deep experience of national history.
Gerhard Richter, 1932-
After escaped to West Germany, Richter studied avant-garde art at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf. He held Kapitalistischen Realismus movement with Sigmar Polke, exhibiting ironic works that drew inspiration from print materials, the Fluxus movement, and Happenings. In his 1960s Photo-Paintings, he painted works derived from photographic sources, infusing the naturalistic images with blurring and other painterly techniques to great critical acclaim. In the early 1970s, Richter began examining the visual and textural effects of pure applications of paint to canvas, evident in his Color Charts, Vermalung, and other series, eventually alternating between Abstract paintings and naturalistic forms in his work up through the present. In October 2012, Richter's Abstraktes Bild set an auction record price for a painting by a living artist at $34 million (about NT $ 1000 million). This was further exceeded in February 2015 when his painting Abstraktes Bild sold for $44.52 million in London at Sotheby's Contemporary Evening Sale (about NT $ 1460 million).
Figure 1: Gerhard Richter, Abstraktes bild,1986, was sold for $44.52 million in London at Sotheby's Contemporary Evening Sale (about NT $ 1460 million).©Gerhard Richter
Figure 2 top left & right: Sigmar Polke, Photo by YIART
Figure 2 bottom left: Jörg Immendorff, Blaue Punkte:Grüne Punkte (Blue Dots:Green Dots),1965 ©Michael Werner
Figure 2 bottom right: Markus Lüpertz, Schuhabdruck—dithyrambisch (Shoe print—Dithyrambic), 1965 © Markus Lüpertz
