Return And Transcendence

This dissertation takes German Neo-expressionist painters G.Baselitz and A.R.Penck as the research subject.The two artists have made figurative painting on recursive easel-painting an important part of post-modern art with their unique expressive creation and have aroused people’s widespread concern since 1980 s.Based on the reasons and process for the emergence of German Neo-expressionism,after comprehensively analyzing their creating backgrounds,this dissertation attempts to study the common concepts in terms of content and form of art between G.Baselitz and A.R.Penck from the three aspects of theme,emotional expression and artistic language.Further,the influence of the two artists’ concepts on other New-expressionist arts is also explored.On the motifs of the paintings,both of them contain the German ethnic theme,which mainly reflects on the world wars initiated in German history.Secondly,their works are concerned about the division of Germany’s post-war society and the political situation of the cold war in the world.The expressions of these motifs directly lead to their negative and blazing emotional attitudes in their works.In terms of artistic language,the commonalities of the two artists are embodied in the use of some primitive artistic features and the specific expression which means the figurative painting based on some abstract basis.As an outstanding figures in the field of contemporary art,Baselitz and Penck’s artistic concepts have an in-depth influence on the field of German art.Meanwhile they are also linked to new expressional art in Italy,the United States and China.