The 80s are the most important decade for the art of our age. For the first time, art was no longer determined by an all-dominant style, such as abstraction or Pop. The 80s stand out for an unprecedented stylistic pluralism that resorted to the picture pool of past decades: the 80s were the cradle of Postmodernism.
After the years of Minimalism and Conceptual Art, the New Wild Ones satisfied the hunger for pictures with their Neo-Expressionist painting. Jeff Koons discovered kitsch. Francesco Clemente resorted to ancient mythology, while Julian Schnabel shattered the picture proper with his material collages. Cindy Sherman and Robert Longo sought to disappoint expectations as to permanent artistic innovation by attacking the fetish of art’s originality. Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring became the epitome of artistic nonconformity. The feminist art of Barbara Kruger and Jenny Holzer declared war on male dominance and the obsessed consumerism of American society. And for the first time, Austrian art, such as that of Franz West, Brigitte Kowanz, and Erwin Wurm, seamlessly blended in with contemporary international art.