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Neo-Expressionist Animal Paintings

NEO-EXPRESSIONIST STYLE

A resurgence of interest in Expressionism, Pop art, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism and other movements gained steam among artists of the 1970s and ’80s, in part as a reaction to the austerity of the prevailing minimalism and Conceptual art of the era. A decadent, bold and brash art style called Neo-Expressionism saw painters returning to figural representation, creating highly textured works that were imbued with intensely personal narratives.

Neo-Expressionist paintings are sensuous in nature and highly subjective in meaning. Expressive brushwork, highly pigmented colors and layered forms and materials lent sculptural attributes to the work and were used to depict symbolic narratives from history, mythology and the artist’s personal experience. 

Prominent figures such as Jean-Michel Basquiat led the Neo-Expressionist movement in the United States with paintings and prints that were raw, emotional and often violent in nature. In Germany, Die Neuen Wilden (the “New Fauves”) was the name given to a group of postwar artists that included the likes of sculptor Georg Baselitz and Gerhard Richter, a painter and photographer who explored the possibilities of both abstraction and realism, sometimes in a single piece. The work of the New Fauves — labeled as such for its return to Fauvism’s textured brushwork and use of vibrant colors — shares commonalities with Neo-Expressionism, and Baselitz was a pioneer of the movement in Europe. In addition, Willem de Kooning’s pulsating action paintings and Julian Schnabel’s experimentation with the materiality of paintings also took shape during this period.

“I was trying to make paintings different from the paintings that I saw a lot of at the time, which were mostly minimal, and they were highbrow and alienating, and I wanted to make very direct paintings that most people would feel the emotion behind when they saw them,” said Basquiat. 

Neo-Expressionism generated some polarizing opinions, with some celebrating the revival of personal subjectivity in art while others criticizing the movement for being too commercially driven and nostalgic. But most experts agree that Neo-Expressionism was a huge commercial success and culturally impactful, paving the way for the postmodern work of artists like Richter and Sigmar Polke

Find original Neo-Expressionist paintings, prints, mixed-media works and other art on 1stDibs.

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Style: Neo-Expressionist
"Canine Kaleidoscope" by L. A. Spowart - Vibrant Blue Neo Expressionist of Dogs
Located in Carmel, CA
Lesley Anne Spowart (American, born 1957) "Canine Kaleidoscope" 2024 Acrylic paint, Glue, Paper, Collage, Mixed Media, Wood Panel The artist signed the bottom right and back of the p...
Category

2010s Neo-Expressionist Animal Paintings

Materials

Paper, Glue, Mixed Media, Acrylic, Wood Panel, Pencil

CHL 0820
Located in New York, NY
This whimsical and sophisticated painting was realized by the esteemed contemporary painter, Hunt Slonem in 2014. It presents a stylized rabbit in profile, rendered with loose and ex...
Category

2010s Neo-Expressionist Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

"Dog and Kitty Go for a Ride" by Spowart - Colorful Yellow Animal Abstract
Located in Carmel, CA
Lesley Anne Spowart (American, born 1957) "Dog and Kitty Go for a Ride" 2021 Acrylic Paint, Mixed Media, Wood Panel, Wood The artist signed the bottom left and the back of the painti...
Category

2010s Neo-Expressionist Animal Paintings

Materials

Wood, Paper, Mixed Media, Acrylic, Wood Panel

Global Warming rich color humor art topical subject birds and human interaction
Located in Brooklyn, NY
oil on stretched canvas signed an dated on reverse. Basso's highly original pastels and oil paintings are romantic yet thought provoking narratives. His whimsical works are alive wit...
Category

2010s Neo-Expressionist Animal Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

"Dog with Pearls" by L. A. Spowart - Abstract Animal Painting on Wood Panel
Located in Carmel, CA
Lesley Anne Spowart (American, born 1957) "Dog with Pearls" 2021 Acrylic Paint, Mixed Media, Wood Panel The artist signed the bottom left and back of the painting. "Dog with Pearls"...
Category

2010s Neo-Expressionist Animal Paintings

Materials

Mixed Media, Acrylic, Wood Panel

Untitled by Enzio Wenk, 2021 -Acrylic on Canvas, Abstract, NeoExpressionism
Located in Bresso, IT
Acrylic paint on canvas.
Category

2010s Neo-Expressionist Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

DREAMS OF THE GOLDEN SNAKE
Located in CÓRDOBA, ES
Original art by DARIA KUSTO The magic flow reality.. Acrylic on canvas Shipped From Spain.
Category

2010s Neo-Expressionist Animal Paintings

Materials

Acrylic

American Neo Expressionist "Wild Horses" Modernist Oil Painting
Located in Surfside, FL
Robert Beauchamp (1923 – March 1995) was an American figurative painter and arts educator. Beauchamp's paintings and drawings are known for depicting dramatic creatures and figures with expressionistic colors. His work was described in the New York Times as being "both frightening and amusing,". He was a Guggenheim Fellow and a student of Hans Hofmann. Robert Beauchamp was born in Denver, Colorado in 1923. He had three brothers and three sisters, and the children were orphaned by both parents by the time Beauchamp was three. The family grew up impoverished due to the Great Depression, living in a community house with other families. As a child he dabbled in art but it wasn't until high school that he began taking art classes. When not creating art he also played sports; football and basketball, and enjoyed chemistry and geology. He was told he was good at drawing, and replaced study hall classes with art classes, receiving instruction and inspiration from a Welsh teacher named R. Idris Thomas. While in high school Beauchamp would go, every Monday, to the public library and a local museum where he would read books about art; specifically French painting, as assigned by Thomas. Beauchamp absorbed the tenets of European Modernism and American Abstract Expressionism—with which he eventually broke. While abstraction, with its focus on color and form, underlies his compositions, he filled canvas and paper with psychologically acute portraits of himself and others, nudes, animals, and objects of all kinds. Beauchamp would spend upwards of four hours a day in the art room and eventually won the Carter Memorial Prize, which provided a scholarship to the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. At Colorado Springs he studied under Boardman Robinson, painting landscapes in nature. Beauchamp eventually joined the Navy and then returned to Colorado Springs to continue his studies. Traveling the world as an Armed Guard, he spent a year and a half at sea and the rest of the three years in San Francisco. Seeking to make money, and to follow his love for a girl, Beauchamp decided to attend Cranbrook Academy of Art from 1947–1948. There he studied pottery, believing one could "make more money selling pots than you could selling paintings." He described his experience at Cranbrook as intimidating and claustrophobic, and eventually switched to sculpture before switching to painting. Beauchamp moved to New York City in the early 1950s and was involved in the Tenth Street galleries, which provided outlets for more experimental artists and the second generation of abstract expressionists. Despite his involvement with 10th Street and friendships with abstract artists, abstract art never interested in him. He showed at numerous galleries in New York and Provincetown, socializing with gallery owners, artists and collectors. His first exhibition was at the Tanager Gallery in New York, he also showed during the 1950s at the Hansa Gallery. In New York and Provincetown he studied under Hans Hofmann Eventually he felt that abstract expressionism became dull and stalemated. During the 1960s he showed at the Green Gallery. C. 1960 he was awarded a Fulbright Award allowing him to travel to La Romola, Italy. He traveled frequently to cities such as Rome and worked constantly. Beauchamp returned to the states and lived in Provincetown at Walter Gutman's house, who awarded Beauchamp a grant. That year he met his future wife, Nadine Valenti, whom he married in 1967. Beauchamp taught at a variety of schools during his lifetime including Brooklyn College, School of Visual Arts, Cooper Union and the Art Students League of New York during the last fifteen years of his life. Beauchamp described his drawings as painterly, seeking the spontaneity in an image. He would develop a drawing then a painting, and vice versa. His heavily impastoed paintings, often described as sculptures themselves, came from the pouring of paint from a can, with little planning and constant evolution in the medium upon the canvas. He preferred little planning to his creations, believing that an artists work would become stale and repetitive with constant planning. He also created large scale works, at times 70 inches long. Beauchamp had little intention of ever selling his large works, preferring to create them due to the slow and intense experience he received from the process. The large drawings he created on the floor, and the smaller works were created on a table. Paintings were created on either the floor or wall and he described his painting process as "splattering", "pushing the paint around," and sponging. Animals often appear in his paintings, despite a dislike for domestic animals outside of his artistic creations. He called the characters in his paintings as Beauchamps. Some Beauchamps hold meaning, with Beauchamp rarely sharing the meaning behind the symbols and characters. He made up the creatures himself, seeking to emphasize the character of each. In 2006 the University of Massachusetts Amherst College of Visual & Performing Arts hosted an exhibition of Beauchamp's pieces from the 1960s, curators stated that Beauchamp's work: "effortlessly blends innovative style elements with narrative, descriptive images. One senses equal enjoyment in the manipulation of, and interaction with, color and paint, and the often sudden and unexpected presence of a wasp or a lump of sugar." included in the important exhibit "Twelve New York Painters." New York: David Findlay Jr. Fine Art with Mary Abbott, Alcopley, Robert Beauchamp, Byron Browne, Charles Cajori, Jim Forsberg, Carl Heidenreich, Angelo Ippolito, Emily Mason, Robert Natkin, Robert Richenburg and Nina Tryggvadottir...
Category

20th Century Neo-Expressionist Animal Paintings

Materials

Paper, Oil

Love nature / animal revolution
Located in CÓRDOBA, ES
Original unique piece hand painted Acrylic paint on canvas
Category

2010s Neo-Expressionist Animal Paintings

Materials

Acrylic

"Uccello Tropicale" by Enzio Wenk, 2020 -Acrylic on Canvas, NeoExpressionism
Located in Bresso, IT
Translated title: "Tropical bird". Acrylic paint on canvas.
Category

2010s Neo-Expressionist Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

"Hornbills"
Located in Astoria, NY
Hunt Slonem (American, b. 1951), "Hornbills", Oil on Canvas, 1995, impasto Neo-Expressionist piece, signed, dated, titled, and numbered "JEM0664" to verso, with a Certificate of Auth...
Category

1990s Neo-Expressionist Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Running Horse abstracted animal painting w poodle and reference to GertrudeStein
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Oil on linen, dark purples, greens . This work conveys a sense of mystery.
Category

2010s Neo-Expressionist Animal Paintings

Materials

Linen, Oil

Playa Citra (citrus Beach) colorful citrus fruits red beagle dog beach
Located in Brooklyn, NY
oi on canvas signed on reverse surreal dreamlike quality
Category

Early 2000s Neo-Expressionist Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Uccelli tropicali sotto la pioggia" by Enzio Wenk, 2018 -Acrylic on Canvas
Located in Bresso, IT
Translated title: "Tropical bird under the rain". Acrylic on a wooden panel. The frame is included. Painting: 44 x 58 cm With frame: 57x71 cm
Category

2010s Neo-Expressionist Animal Paintings

Materials

Acrylic, Wood Panel

Untitled by Enzio Wenk, 2022 - Acrylic on Canvas, NeoExpressionism
Located in Bresso, IT
Acrylic on canvas.
Category

2010s Neo-Expressionist Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

Animal (after Michelangelo) Figurative Mixed Media Painting
Located in Brecon, Powys
The goat plays a strange role in mythology and legend; perhaps its ambivalence, appearing on both sides of the spectrum, give it the appeal it enjoys. Most ancient cultures from the Assyrians via the ancient Greeks and Vikings have a goat appear in their legends. Berlin's goat skulls...
Category

2010s Neo-Expressionist Animal Paintings

Materials

Gold Leaf

"Chiaro di luna" by Enzio Wenk, 2017 - Bird in a Dark Scene, Abstract Animal
Located in Bresso, IT
Translated title: "Moonlight" Acrylic on canvas panel.
Category

2010s Neo-Expressionist Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

Hunt Slonem, "Question Mark and Comma (Again) " Colorful Butterfly Oil Painting
Located in Saratoga Springs, NY
Renowned artist Hunt Slonem's "Question Mark and Comma (Again)" is a 16.5x10.5 colorful yellow scored oil painting on wood board of contemporary abstract butterflies in blues, white,...
Category

2010s Neo-Expressionist Animal Paintings

Materials

Oil, Wood Panel

Cockatoo Whisper Joy, Hunt Slonem
Located in Porto, 13
This painting is an oil work by Hunt Slonem, created in 2023. The piece is in excellent condition, brand new, and measures 127 x 178 cm (50 x 70 inches). The painting features a grid...
Category

2010s Neo-Expressionist Animal Paintings

Materials

Oil

Portrait of a Gray Andalusian Horse
Located in Austin, TX
Artist: Daniela Nikolova Medium: Oil and sand on canvas Size: 47.2" x 31.5"
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Neo-Expressionist Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Hunt Slonem "Doubles" Orange Heart Diamond Dust Bunny
Located in Houston, TX
Hunt Slonem "Doubles" Orange Heart Bunny A rabbit pair gestured in yellow and orange on a matching Diamond Dust background in a vintage frame. Unframed: 14.5 x 14 inches Framed: 20 ...
Category

2010s Neo-Expressionist Animal Paintings

Materials

Resin, Oil, Panel

"Isaiah II--Quaspace for Cow, " Acrylic on Canvas Abstract by Reginald K. Gee
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Isaiah II--Quaspace For Cow" is an original acrylic painting on canvas by Reginald K. Gee. It depicts a cow in yellow, a graph, a landscape, and a bubble of text. The artist signed ...
Category

Early 2000s Neo-Expressionist Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

Untitled
Located in Fairfield, CT
Oil on wood This work is framed. Bunny on blue. Price includes frame.
Category

2010s Neo-Expressionist Animal Paintings

Materials

Wood, Oil

Tall Witness
Located in Fairfield, CT
oil on canvas
Category

1990s Neo-Expressionist Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Neo-expressionist animal paintings for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Neo-Expressionist animal paintings available for sale on 1stDibs. Works in this style were very popular during the 21st Century and Contemporary, but contemporary artists have continued to produce works inspired by this movement. If you’re looking to add animal paintings created in this style to introduce contrast in an otherwise neutral space in your home, the works available on 1stDibs include elements of blue, orange, purple, red and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Hunt Slonem, and Reginald K. Gee. Frequently made by artists working with Canvas, and Fabric and other materials, all of these pieces for sale are unique and have attracted attention over the years. Not every interior allows for large Neo-Expressionist animal paintings, so small editions measuring 8 inches across are also available. Prices for animal paintings made by famous or emerging artists can differ depending on medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $39 and tops out at $155,000, while the average work sells for $7,812.

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