Expressionism Twentytwenty (XP2020) is a neo movement in art. We depict not objective reality, but our subjective emotions and responses. XP2020 continues from expressionists of the 1910's to the 1930's and movements like 'CoBrA' and the 'Neue Wilde'.

Key phrases:
- Emotion

Germany in the twenties
What I would now call ‘Figurative expressionism' bloomed in Germany, in the 1910's to the early 30's. Objects like landscapes, animals, people and so on - even though distorted - are still recognisable. Some forms are exaggerated and put into fantasy combinations, but they still have a ‘classical’ look. They are figurative with a twist. Well known German expressionists are Max Beckmann, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Emil Nolde.​​​​​​​ This movement had two main groups 'Der Blaue Reiter' ('The Blue Rider') and 'Die Brucke' ('The Bridge'). There was also a Kirchner-inspired group in the Netherlands, called "De Ploeg" (The Plow).

For more on expressionism see Tate: art and artists​​​​​​​

Two more expressionist movements: CoBrA and the Neue Wilde
The original ‘figurative’ and abstract expressionists were followed by two more expressionist movements: CoBrA (in the fifties) and the Neue Wilde in the eighties.

CoBrA had Karel Appel and Carl-Henning Pedersen as important protagonists. I call this movement 'Abstracted-Folkloric Expressionism'. People and animals are shown in a highly distorted, abstracted form, but they are still be recognized. CoBrA artists mostly focused on folkloric themes like men, women, children, trees and animals.

The Neue Wilde (New Wild Ones) emerged in the eighties, with Rainer Fetting and Helmut Middendorf as important representants. They are a modern variant of the original German expressionism of the '20s and '30s. They represented a return to painting from the cerebral, conceptual, minimalist art that had been in vogue in the sixties and seventies. They were linked to the punk movement in music.