At the same time as the Neo-Expressionists were making themselves known in the 1980s, other were reacting against these trends. The Neo-Abstractionists are a loose affiliation made up of many individual distinctive styles. A noticeable trend has been the tendency of artists to borrow from the work of others. However, the Neo-Abstract artists have modified or transformed the original by changing the scale, media, or colors to show the older work in a new frame of reference and with a new meaning.
Some meanings are satirical, scathing, or are meant to comment on the decadence of eighties society.
Lynda Benglis, Passat, 1990.