"Art cannot be modern.

Art is primordially
eternal."
Egon Schiele
The birth of modernism and modern art can be
traced to the Industrial Revolution. This period of
rapid changes in manufacturing, transportation,
and technology began around the mid-18th
century and lasted through the 19th century,
profoundly affecting
the social, economic,
and cultural conditions
of life in Western Euro -
pe, North America, and
eventually the world.
Starting with light and airy Impressionism and ending with energetic
Abstract Expressionism, the modern art genre is composed of several
major movements.
 Impressionism
• Starting with light and airy Impressionism and ending with
energetic Abstract Expressionism, the modern art genre is
composed of several major movements. This style
dominated French painting until the turn of the century,
with artists like Monet and Edgar Degas at the forefront.
 POST-IMPRESSIONISM
Inspired by the artistic freedom introduced by the
Impressionists, artists like Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh,
and Henri Toulouse-Lautrec began working in distinctive,
unconventional styles. Known as Post-Impressionism, this
colorful movement started in the 1890s and showcases an
interest in emotion and a preference for subjective interpreta-
tion over realistic representation.
 EXPRESSIONISM
Shortly before World War I, painters in Germany and Austria
began to take an experimental approach to their practice.
Eventually known as Expressionists, these artists adopted and
adapted the unprecedented characteristics of other modern
movements. Like Post-Impressionist and Fauvist works of art,
pieces rendered in the Expressionist style convey a fascination
with bright, artificial color and individualistic iconography.
 Cubism
Characterized by deconstructed, fractured forms,
Cubism marked modern art’s shift toward abstraction.
Pioneered in 1907 by Georges Braque and Pablo
Picasso, the avant-garde movement materialized as
topsy-turvy paintings, multi-dimensional sculptures,
and cutting-edge collages.
Like other modern art
movements, Cubism
emphasized a subjective approach to
creating.
 SURREALISM
In the 1920s, visual artists Salva-
dor Dalí, Max Ernst Man Ray ca-
me together to found Surrealism,
a movement rooted in the subco-
nscious. Lacking “any control
exercised by reason, exempt from
any aesthetic or moral concern”,
the genre culminated in a diverse
collection of dream-like depic-
tions straight from the artists’
imaginations
 Contemporary Art
Due to the experimental nature and overlapping themes of
both modern and contemporary art, the genres are often
confused for one another. However, once one recognizes the
movements that compose each, the ambiguous, blurred line
that differentiates them becomes clearer.
Typically, modern art is understood to include Impressionism,
Abstract Expressionism, and the styles in between. Therefore,
contemporary art commences with the first major movement
following modernism—Pop Art—and, of course, continues
today.