From 1978 onwards, a reactive neo-expressive counter-movement to conceptual art began in the USA with New Image Painting, which has its parallels in Europe through the "Junge Wilde" in Germany, the Italian movements "Transavanguardia" and "Arte Cifra", as well as the French "Figuration Libre". Characteristic of the era of New Image Painting is no uniform style, since a high degree of individualisation of art is in the foreground. The unifying features are a deliberately subjective, emotionally charged mode of representation, free figuration and symbolic ciphering.
