The Neue Wilde Art Movement, often called Neo-expressionism in Germany, burst onto the art scene in the late 1970s and early 1980s. This vibrant movement marked a powerful return to expressive painting, challenging the cool, conceptual art that dominated the preceding decades. It's an essential topic for art students understanding shifts in modern art history.
What is the Neue Wilde Art Movement? A Summary for Students
The term "Neue Wilde" translates to "new savages" and was coined by art historian Wolfgang Becker, referencing the early 20th-century French Fauvism. This comparison was highlighted in the 1980 exhibition Les nouveaux Fauves – Die neuen Wilden in Aachen. Unlike "Heftige Malerei" (heavy painting), the term didn't just refer to the art's wildness, but also to the artists themselves.
Artists associated with the Neue Wilde embraced a spontaneous, expressive visual language, characterized by intense colors and broad, often violent, brushstrokes. They depicted contemporary feelings and personal experiences, rejecting traditional compositions and rebelling against the formal asceticism of Minimal and Conceptual Art.
Characteristics of the Neue Wilde Art Movement
The Neue Wilde artists shared several defining traits, even with their diverse individual styles:
- Rejection of Minimalism: As Salomé famously stated, Minimal Art bored them, finding it devoid of "romantic forms" or "libidinous form" in a world already full of boxes and squares.
- Return to Figuration and Subjectivity: There was an "inexhaustible, fierce desire to create figurative paintings," deeply rooted in individual experiences. Peter Bömmels' statement, "My paintings are about me," perfectly captures this ethos.
- Expressive Brushwork and Vibrant Colors: Their work is known for powerful brushstrokes and a mostly strong, often aggressive, color palette.
- Challenging Art Historical Norms: Artists often adopted a cavalier relationship to art historical sources, sometimes integrating quotes, formal borrowings, and mixing different techniques.
- Spirit of Rebellion: The movement arose in protest, fueled by the punk scene, New Wave culture, and a desire to challenge the established art figures of their time.
Key Centers and Artists of the Neue Wilde
The movement was decentralized, with loosely organized groups emerging across Germany, each with its unique focus and artistic temperament.
The Berlin "Mortiz Boys"
In Berlin, artists like Rainer Fetting, Helmut Middendorf, Salomé, and Bernd Zimmer founded the Selbsthilfegalerie (Self-help gallery) on Moritzplatz in 1977. They were quickly labeled Neo-expressionists due to their spontaneous, expressive style.
- Themes: Inspired by the Berlin underground, punk scene, and New Wave culture. Personal obsessions and sexual leanings were significant, as seen in Salomé's work, and classic landscape motifs, as in Bernd Zimmer's paintings.
- Radicality: Their figurative subjects often showcased their radicality, with a direct link to bodily performances. For instance, Luciano Castelli and Salomé's four-part work KaDeWe used naked male bodies, provocatively hung on butcher's hooks in a department store window, to explore ambiguity and celebrate gay activism.
The Cologne "Mülheimer Freiheit"
The group in Cologne, named after their shared studio street at 110 Mülheimer Freiheit, included Hans Peter Adamski, Peter Bömmels, Walter Dahn, Jiří Georg Dokoupil, Gerard Kever, and Gerhard Naschberger. Their styles and content were remarkably individualistic, not as unified as the Berlin artists.
- Concept: They embraced dilettantism, using kitschy and banal subjects painted quickly, deliberately challenging "good" taste. They mixed different painting techniques and incorporated citations and formal borrowings, reflecting a postmodern relationship to tradition.
- Impact: The directness and untamed nature of their artistic views were often expressed through aggressively colored and sometimes repulsive collaborative works by Dahn and Dokoupil.
The Hamburg Artists
In Hamburg, Werner Büttner, Martin Kippenberger, Albert Oehlen, and Markus Oehlen focused on protesting the "affluence-based apathy of the 1980s." Their oil paintings often featured gloomy hues and an ironic, sarcastic undertone in their political and social discourse.
- Experimentation: These artists viewed the act of painting as an experiment, constantly questioning the image, theme, and content. They moved between painting and text, abstraction and figuration, pathos, cliché, and banality.
- Provocation: Kippenberger's Ich kann beim besten Willen kein Hakenkreuz entdecken (1984) exemplifies their approach, inviting viewers to search for an object that isn't there, thereby ironically undermining the seriousness of a problematic symbol.
Other Notable Neue Wilde Artists
Major international figures associated with neo-expressionism and the Neue Wilde include Georg Baselitz and Anselm Kiefer, known for their powerful, often monumental works.
Exhibitions and International Recognition
Despite initial critical reception, the Neue Wilde quickly gained prominence.
- 1980: Heftige Malerei exhibition in Berlin introduced the Berlin Wilde to a broader audience.
- 1981: Rundschau Deutschland gathered major figures from various centers in Munich and Cologne.
- 1982: documenta 7, organized by Rudi Fuchs, elevated the Neue Wilde to international status. That same year, Christos M. Joachimides and Norman Rosenthal presented Zeitgeist in Berlin, showcasing their "snotty, heavy, and agilely painted pictures."
This rapid rise led to a "star cult," with art dealers buying out studios and works entering renowned collections even before they dried. Salomé commented on this swift success: "It was a dream come true; we established ourselves overnight... I had been a graduate student in art, and only a year later the Museum of Modern Art was showing my paintings."
Flashcards
Tap to flip · Swipe to navigate
Critical Reception and Legacy
The movement polarized experts. Critics questioned, "Are the Neue Wilde really doing something new?" perceiving parallels to Fauvists and German Expressionists rather than an inimitable zeitgeist. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung famously judged some works as "A lot of really bad art."
After a few "rambunctious years with punk and sex and all of those things," the anarchic forces exhausted themselves by the mid-1980s, and the movement faded. However, it ensured that painting was "back in vogue." Later exhibitions have allowed for new encounters with the art, prompting a re-evaluation of the quality of works from these "paint-crazy years."
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) About The Neue Wilde Art Movement
What does "Neue Wilde" mean?
"Neue Wilde" translates from German to "new savages." The term was inspired by early 20th-century French Fauvism, meaning "wild beasts," and referred to the artists' rebellious, expressive approach to painting.
How did the Neue Wilde react to previous art movements?
The Neue Wilde artists actively rebelled against the dominant Minimal Art and Conceptual Art movements of the 1960s and 70s. They found these styles too academic, formal, and lacking in emotional depth, advocating for a return to figurative, expressive painting rooted in personal experience.
Who were some of the most influential artists of the Neue Wilde?
Key artists include Rainer Fetting, Helmut Middendorf, Salomé, Bernd Zimmer (Berlin); Hans Peter Adamski, Peter Bömmels, Walter Dahn, Jiří Georg Dokoupil, Gerard Kever, Gerhard Naschberger (Cologne); and Werner Büttner, Martin Kippenberger, Albert Oehlen (Hamburg). Internationally recognized figures also associated with the broader neo-expressionist trend include Georg Baselitz and Anselm Kiefer.
What were the main themes explored by Neue Wilde artists?
Themes varied by region but commonly included urban life (especially the underground and punk scenes in Berlin), personal obsessions, sexuality, landscape, social and political critique (often with irony in Hamburg), and an exploration of individual reality and experience across all centers.
Why is the Neue Wilde Art Movement important?
The Neue Wilde was crucial for bringing painting back to prominence in the late 20th century, challenging prevailing avant-garde trends and demonstrating a powerful return to subjectivity, figuration, and emotional expression. It sparked international dialogue and influenced subsequent generations of artists, even if its initial intensity was short-lived.