Art: German Expressionism Lives

A resurgence of powerful images by five exemplary figures

Neoexpressionism, New Figuration, heftige Malerei—whatever the name may be—German figurative painting is at present the most hotly disputed stock on the Big Board of art. The arguments about it are going to go on for quite a while, partly because few generalizations hold across a field of painters whose work varies so wildly in meaning and quality. What can be said of raucous ephemerids like Rainer Petting that will also apply to deeper men like Anselm Kiefer? The Germans, understandably, have extolled all of...