Art Term

Transavanguardia

Italian neo-expressionist group formed in the late 1970s

The Transavanguardia movement was part of the international phenemenon of a revival of expressionist painting in the late 1970s and 1980s.

The term, which literally means ‘beyond the avant-garde’, was coined by the critic Achille Oliva in his texts for an exhibition he organised in 1979 in Genanzzano titled Le Stanze.

The leading Italian Transavanguardia artists were Sandro Chia, Francesco Clemente, Enzo Cucchi, Nicolo de Maria and Mimmo Paladino.

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