modern art

American  

noun

1. art that was produced in the late 1860s through the 1970s and that rejected traditionally accepted forms and emphasized individual experimentation and sensibility.

---

Etymology

Origin of modern art

First recorded in 1800–10, for an earlier sense

Example Sentences

The album is experimental, merging modern art with Romanticism.

From Salon • Jun. 5, 2026

I like to think that the role of a modern art museum is to be that space precisely between the immediate past and the future.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 12, 2026

He lives in a company-owned apartment full of dark, polished surfaces and bad modern art; she lives in a rundown apartment furnished with termites.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 18, 2026

Abdoulaye N was previously a guard at the Center Pompidou in Paris, an arts centre containing Europe's largest museum of modern art.

From BBC • Nov. 6, 2025

He’s so frustrated with his bosses, who won't let him sell modern art in the gallery.

From "Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers" by Deborah Heiligman