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.

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Etymology

Origin of modern art

First recorded in 1800–10, for an earlier sense

Example Sentences

“So are people that have been obsessing on modern art and modernism all their lives — they’re gonna be confounded by it.”

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 8, 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

For all their differences, all the creatives represented have at least one thing in common, Bonsu says - "fashioning radical visions of what modern art could be".

From BBC • Oct. 7, 2025

It has been instrumental in turning Milan into an art capital, said Nicola Ricciardi, the artistic director of Miart, the city’s annual contemporary and modern art fair.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 4, 2025

The ground there looked like a really awful piece of modern art, thickly spattered with white, brown, and green chicken poop.

From "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan