Transavantgarde, a neologism coined by art historian Achille Bonito Oliva, came into being between the end of the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s as a response to the dominance of the “idea” in the Conceptualism of the 1960s and 1970s. Oliva advocated a return to the joy of manual skill and figurativism, favouring traditional artistic techniques and mediums (ceramics, mosaics), while continually drawing inspiration from the past. In this framework, mosaics are an expressive language of choice.
Among the main Transavantgarde artists that have experimented with mosaics in their various forms since the 1980s are Mimmo Paladino, Sandro Chia and Enzo Cucchi with flat and 3D design and public artworks. Nicola De Maria and Francesco Clemente also chose the fascination, tactility, shades, durability and expressive vitality of mosaics for public site-specific artworks: there are monumental site-specific mosaics in the Dante (2003) and Toledo (2012) stations of the Naples Metro, where Sandro Chia and Mimmo Paladino’s large site-specific mosaics are also prominent.