What is modern art?

The definition of modern art

Modern art is a period in the history of art that begins in the 1850s and ends in the 1950s. It comes before the period of contemporary art, which started after World War II. It began with the realist movement when artists such as Courbet and Edgar Manet started to depict everyday life with a technique that didn't shy away from imperfections. This was followed by the impressionist movement with painters such as Claude Monet, and ended with the emergence of pop art.

Modern art consists of a number of movements (including impressionism, futurism, expressionism, cubism, surrealism, outsider art, etc.), but the one feature they all shared was that these movements broke away from the rules and canons of classical art, which often mean moving away from figurative art. The development of photography encouraged contemporary artists to rethink the role of art. The aim was no longer to reflect reality as faithfully as possible, but to question, criticise, and represent the world in a new way, showing with its contradictions and complexities. Indeed, during this period, painters, sculptors, and draughtsmen no longer tried to depict reality faithfully, as was the case in the previous centuries, but to show it in a different way or even do away with any desire for realism.

The emergence of modern art

Why do we call modern art the period between the 1850s and the 1950s? The notion of modernity arose in the 1850s to refer to deep upheavals occurring in Western countries from the 19th century onwards due to the industrial revolutions.

However, modernity was also a way of thinking and creating that was intended to be innovative and opposed to the rules of the Academy of Fine Arts.

The Academy of Fine Arts, which since 1725 had either accepted or refused to exhibit artists' work in the Salon of Painting and Sculpture (commonly referred to the Salon), lost some of its influence and the Salon's juries lost their strong credibility in the eyes of the painters, the public, and the State. Painters outside of the Academy (because they breached the rules set by the latter) gradually refused to exhibit their work alongside that of painters approved by the Academy and sought new opportunities to showcase their work.

At the same time, art became a popular topic to write about and the notion of art criticism emerged. Prominent writers such as Baudelaire and Zola wrote critiques of the works of modern artists and often showed their support. There were artists who wrote critiques themselves, such as Matisse, or manifestos (Courbet's Realist Manifesto, the Dada Manifesto, the Surrealist Manifesto). Finally, the emergence of photography as a new medium of visual art affected artists in many ways. They first saw it as an additional reason to move away from figurative art and the canons of classical art. Photography also became a new source of inspiration and a working tool – artists took photographs of landscapes or objects to subsequently reproduce them more or less accurately in their works.

Tip: Did you know that you can find thousands of works of modern art on Artsper? To distinguish them from works of contemporary art, go to the artwork's page and you will find the creation date in the description below the artwork. In addition, on artists' pages you'll be able to find the artist's year of birth which will tell you whether the artist is contemporary or modern.