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

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

Theatre Picasso marks 100 years since the Spanish artist, often referred to as the godfather of modern art, unveiled his famous painting The Three Dancers.

From BBC • Sep. 17, 2025

Volker Oldenburg paints modern art in a potato cellar in West Berlin.

From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell