A History of Modern Art

Modern art painted the path to deep, raw, and emotional art. It portrayed the beauty in the ordinary and the power in the unfiltered.

What began with simple, visible brush strokes turned into a movement that changed the art industry forever.

This article covers the history and legacy of the modern art movement.

We’ll go over the origins, characteristics, and important movements within the magnificent modern era.

The Origins of Modern Art

The origins of modern art can be traced back all the way to 1863. Several artists from this era were fed up with traditional art methods.

The works these artists created went against the norm of the art industry. These artists were coined “moderns”, although they would later call themselves Impressionists.

Modern art took a bigger form during the transformative 19th century. The Industrial Revolution was a period of rapid changes that affected how people lived, worked, and traveled.

New production and transportation expanded the world and how people saw it. Cities prospered as people poured in for industrial jobs.

This period of innovation and change paved the way for new and fresh ideas. One of them was the modern art movement.

What Is Modern Art?

Inlet Scene with Sailboat and Clam Rakers by Andre Hambourg

Modern art is a term that refers to art created between 1870 and 1970. However, the term “modern art” also encompasses art that breaks with past traditions and experiments with new ones.

The idea of modern art came about during the 19th century when artists began to break away from the traditional styles of painting and sculpture that had been popular for centuries. They began to experiment with new techniques and materials, and they often created works that were quite different from anything that had come before.

Modern art was born through painters like Vincent Van Gogh, Claude Monet, and Paul Cezanne. All of whom created masterpieces that influenced the rest of the modern art period.

Modern Characteristics

A New Type of Art

Prior to the modern art movement, artists chose to paint real-life events as they were seen. Artists often chose reality over dreamscapes. Modern art began an era where artists created works based on feelings and emotions.

Instead of seeing a scene and painting it, artists painted how the scene made them feel. With this new idea and thought process, artists began to create more raw and emotional works.

The modern art movement was not just about adding more emotion to a canvas. It was also about using new materials and techniques to create works of art that were quite different from anything that had come before.

New Materials

Paris Review by William De Kooning

Modern artists began using new materials or muses in their work. This is how the term “junk art” was brought to the canvas.

Artists started using ordinary objects such as clocks, suitcases, and even soup cans as their inspiration. Modern artists saw beauty in the common and ordinary.

New Techniques

Modern art brought many new techniques that the art industry had never seen before. Collage art, assemblage, and animation art all quickly emerged in exhibits across the world.

Modern artists also used bold and bright colors to express themselves.

Fauvism and Expressionism were the first art movements within modern art to exploit color on canvas.

Important Art Movements

Impressionism

Frieze by Edouard Manet

Impressionism is considered one of the most important artistic movements of the modern period.

The Impressionist movement originated in the early 19th century when Claude Monet exhibited his painting Impression, Sunrise in Paris in 1874.

Monet’s work was rejected by many critics because of its visible brushstrokes, but it was well-received by the public.

Impressionist artists sought to capture the movement of light in their work. Like Monet’s Sunrise, their paintings often depicted scenes of nature and everyday life, and they intended their brushstrokes to be visible and moving.

Cubism

Cubism was the first to incorporate geometrical objects and collage on canvas. Popular cubism artists chose to trade single viewpoints for abstract angles.

Artists like Pablo Picasso and George Braque were the first to create works of cubism in the early 20th century.

Expressionism

The Expressionism Movement was influenced by the subjective viewpoint. Artists from this movement depicted their art by distorting reality to illustrate emotion and expression.

Expressionist paintings were viewed as very moody and raw works of art. A leading example of an expressionist painting is The Scream by Edvard Munch.

Surrealism

Plate II by Joan Miro

Emerging shortly after World War I, surrealism gave birth to strange, dreamscape scenes on canvas.

Surrealists believed that art could unite the real world with the fantasy world. They were inspired by the theories of imagination from Sigmund Freud.

Surrealist paintings often depicted distorted realities mixed with ordinary objects.

Pop Art

Giving the Light by Peter Max

Pop art is a movement that emerged in the United Kingdom in the late 1950s and then spread to the United States. It was the last influential art movement of the modern era.

Pop art is characterized by its use of popular culture, including advertising, comic strips, and other imagery from popular culture. It is a style of art that reflects the culture of its time.

Following in the surrealists’ footsteps, pop artists began using ordinary objects in their work. Artists like Andy Warhol incorporated advertising, mass-produced objects, and comic strips into his work.

The pop art movement was heavily inspired by the large spread of consumer culture that would soon bring in another movement of artists.

Modern Art vs Contemporary Art

Girl at the Window by Martin Whatson

Modern art overtook the late 1960’s. Art historians credit the end of the modern era with the rise of pop culture. As modern art flamed out, a new movement heated up.

Contemporary art soon took its place with new techniques and perspectives. While modern art focuses on the subjective, contemporary art focuses on culture, social and political aspects.

Contemporary art refers to art created in the 21st century or current day. Because of its focus on society, contemporary art reflects the issues that form our world.

Artists like Keith Haring, brought light to issues such as inequality, sexuality, and AIDS, rang in this new era.

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