# Neo-Expressionism (新表現主義)

> An international current in which large formats, violent brushwork and subjects from history and myth returned, in reaction against the asceticism of Minimal and Conceptual art. Its raw draughtsmanship and layers of grime feed directly into the temperature of 1980s record sleeves and magazine layouts.

- IndexStyle No.475 — https://indexstyle.org/styles/neo-expressionism
- Kind: Style · Family: Gestural Abstraction · Era: 1978–1990
- Mood: Exhilaration, Nostalgia, Rebellion
- Color cues: #e9e6dd / #67635d / #171615 (cues taken from reference works, not a fixed palette)

## Defining characteristics

- Large formats and coarse brushwork
- Subjects from myth and history
- Heavy use of muddied colour and black
- Mixed-in materials and physical thickness

## Best used for

- Record sleeves and gig posters that need heat, mess and myth
- Fashion and editorial imagery trading polish for raw painterly attack

## Research method

This entry records a historical style; derive the treatment from its sources rather than a fixed recipe:

- Scrawled, hand-painted headlines; letterforms attacked rather than set
- Oversized central figures crowding the frame; layers colliding without hierarchy
- Muddied colour, black, and matter mixed into the paint—straw, sand, collage

## What to avoid

Avoid controlled, tasteful roughness—the style demands real excess, and a tidied version reads as a costume of rebellion.

## Application checklist

Before calling a piece an application of this style, check it against the defining characteristics:

- [ ] Large formats and coarse brushwork
- [ ] Subjects from myth and history
- [ ] Heavy use of muddied colour and black
- [ ] Mixed-in materials and physical thickness
- [ ] At least one reference work below has been studied directly
- [ ] The caution above ("What to avoid") has been addressed

## Related styles

- **Expressionism (表現主義)** — Paints what was felt rather than what was seen — warped form, violent strokes, unnatural color moving the age's anxiety straight onto the surface. → https://indexstyle.org/styles/expressionism
- **Lowbrow (Pop Surrealism) (ローブロウ)** — Painting from outside the museum, raised on hot rods, comics, tattoos and B movies — pop memory rendered in precise oil technique, institutionalized as Pop Surrealism around Juxtapoz magazine. → https://indexstyle.org/styles/lowbrow

## Further study

- The differences between the German, Italian and American strands
- The relationship with the art market
- The spread into 1980s graphics

## Reference works

- Georg Baselitz《Orangenesser II》Tate Modern 展示風景 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Georg%20Baselitz%2C%20Orangenesser%20II%2C%20Capturing%20The%20Moment%2C%20Tate%20Modern%2004.jpg
- Georg Baselitz《BDM Gruppe》2012 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Baselitz%20BDM%20Gruppe%202012%20001.jpg
- Anselm Kiefer 作品（SFMOMA 展示）— Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Anselm%20Kiefer%2C%20SFMOMA%2007.jpg

## Source of record

- Tate — Art Terms: Neo-Expressionism — https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/n/neo-expressionism

## Machine surfaces

- JSON: https://indexstyle.org/api/styles/neo-expressionism
- Image-generation prompt (legally clean): https://indexstyle.org/styles/neo-expressionism/prompt.txt
- MCP: https://indexstyle.org/mcp (tools: search_styles, get_style, compose_styles; prompts: image-prompt, apply-style)

## 日本語

ミニマルとコンセプチュアルの禁欲への反動として、大画面・激しい筆致・歴史と神話の主題が戻ってきた国際的潮流。荒い描線と汚しの層は、1980年代のレコードジャケットや雑誌の版面の温度にも直結している。

特徴: 大画面と粗い筆致／神話と歴史の主題／濁色と黒の多用／素材の混入と厚み
注意: 表面的な記号へ還元せず、時代・地域・技術・制作主体の文脈を確認する。