gOnZO ArT & NeO-ExpRessIONisM*

Neo-expressionism was a style of modern painting that emerged in the late 1970s and dominated the art market until the mid-1980s. Related to American Lyrical Abstraction it developed in Europe as a reaction against the conceptual and minimalist art of the 1970s. Neo-expressionists returned to portraying recognizable objects, such as the human body (although sometimes in a virtually abstract manner), in a rough and violently emotional way using vivid colors and banal color harmonies. Overtly inspired by the so-called German Expressionist painters--Emil Nolde, Max Beckmann, George Grosz--and other intensely expressive artists such as James Ensor and Edvard Munch. Neo-expressionists were sometimes called Neue Wilde ('The new wild ones'; 'New Fauves' would better meet the meaning of the term).

Gonzo is term that became an emotive word first used by the beat generation of the 50 and 60’s when describing the experience of getting high on drugs and was to became a part of the San Francisco’s Hippy crowd vernacular. It is associated with journalistic writing of an exaggerated, subjective, and fictionalized style. Meaning bizarre or crazy.

Hunter S. Thompson brought fame to the word by using it as a descriptor for his art. His intense and ill fated relationship with the Hell’s Angels, his near-successful bid for the office of sheriff in Aspen in 1970, the notorious story behind the landmark Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, his deep involvement in Senator George McGovern’s 1972 presidential campaign, and much more by example demonstrates that Gonzo is about becoming totally immersed in ones art so as to take on a life itself. Forget objectivity one must surrender to the subjective because there is no such thing as objective truth.

Gonzo implies going out of ones mind which is exactly where an artist must be. (We are not talking insanity which is another experience and another definition.) Gonzo implies a journey and is especially poignant if one has experienced psychedelic drugs like LSD, Mescaline, psilocybin. It is to take oneself into ones art and let the experience become so subjective there is no return, only change by break through. There is a structure to all this. It is process of letting go which requires a conscious decision to work in a certain way. As the artist moves from each creation the artist trusts the experience of working free of preconceived notions. As time moves forward the process becomes easier. The heart rules and the intellect observes the phenomenon.

With the dawn of computer technology there has been a resurgence of the new wild ones. The twenty-first century has opened multiple door ways of expressions that are more complex by design yet spontaneous in terms of craft. The digital art world is fertile ground for the style of Gonzo Neo-expressionism to grow.


*Gonzo Art & NeO-Expressionism© is the intellectual property of a very talented bright Gonzo lady named Kime Einhorn.