Modernism

Introduction & Top Questions
Modernism in literature
Modernism in the visual arts and architecture
Modernism in music and dance
The birth of postmodernism

References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Images, Videos & Interactives

Giacomo Balla: Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash

Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby raises a champagne glass, with 'The Great Gatsby' book cover superimposed and an arrow pointing to it.

Édouard Manet: A Bar at the Folies-Bergère

The Seagram Building, a tall, dark glass and steel skyscraper with a rectangular shape, stands among other high-rise buildings in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.

Michael Graves: Portland Public Service Building

Quizzes

Pablo Picasso (right) with M. Ramier, owner of the Vallauris Pottery, shown viewing one of Picasso's pottery designs. 1948.

Modern Art: Who Sculpted It?

Related Questions

How did Abstract Expressionism fit Clement Greenberg’s idea of Modernism?
How did Cubism change the traditional depiction of space and depth?
How did Dada respond to the disillusionment caused by World War I?
How did Fauvist artists use color in landscape paintings?
How did Futurism and Cubism influence Dada artists?
How did Georges Braque use geometric forms in his early Cubist landscapes?
How did Giorgio de Chirico’s metaphysical paintings influence Surrealism?
How did Gustave Courbet challenge academic painting traditions?
How did Jean Arp use chance in his collages and reliefs?
How did Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier represent the International Style?
How did Marcel Duchamp challenge traditional ideas about art with his readymades?
How did Mexican muralists Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco combine art with social awareness?
How did Modernist architecture reject historical styles and ornament?
How did Paul Cézanne influence the development of Modernist painting?
How did Paul Gauguin break with traditional subject matter and techniques?
How did Piet Mondrian use geometric abstraction in his paintings?
How did Post-Impressionist painters differ from Impressionists?
How did René Magritte make everyday objects seem strange in his paintings?
How did Sigmund Freud’s ideas influence Surrealist artists?
How did Surrealist landscapes combine fantasy with the natural world?
How did Surrealists use automatism to explore the unconscious mind?
How did Vincent van Gogh develop a more personal artistic vision?
How did abstract art differ from representational art?
How did industrialization influence Modernist artists?
How did modern painting begin in 19th-century France?
How did steel frames and curtain walls change Modernist architecture?
How did the Bauhaus influence Modernist art and design?
How did Édouard Manet draw attention to the flatness of a canvas?
How is modern art different from contemporary art?
When did Modernism in the visual arts develop?
Why did Clement Greenberg value the flat surface of a painting?
Why did Dada artists try to shock middle-class audiences?
Why did Modernist artists become interested in art from non-Western cultures?
Why did Modernist artists search for new forms of expression?
Why did abstraction become important in Modernist art?
Why did many Modernist artists reject Victorian optimism and convention?
Why is Édouard Manet often considered an early Modernist artist?
Why was Marcel Duchamp’s 1917 urinal submission controversial?
What did Modernism do?
Where is Modernism today?

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External Websites

Cambridge University Press - CambridgeCore - Introduction: A History of Â“ModernismÂ”
Tate - Modernism
Pressbooks via Minnesota Libraries Publishing Project - Modern World Literature: Compact Edition - Modernism
Art UK - Modernism
Boise State Pressbooks - The Creative Spirit: 1550-Present - Modernism
Poets.org - A Brief Guide to Modernism
Eastern Connecticut State University - British Modernism
Humanities LibreTexts - Modernism
Poetry Foundation - Modernism
Art in Context - Modern Art ï¿½ An Exploration of the 20th-Century Modernist Movement
Victoria and Albert Museum - What was Modernism?
University of Oxford - Great Writers Inspire - Modernism
Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Modernism

Modernism

art

Also known as: Modernist

Written by

Kathleen Kuiper

Kathleen Kuiper was Senior Editor, Arts & Culture, Encyclopædia Britannica until 2016. She also edited Merriam-Webster’s Encyclopedia of Literature.

Kathleen Kuiper

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

Britannica Editors

Last updated

Nov. 13, 2026 •History

Modernism, in the fine arts, a break with the past and the concurrent search for new forms of expression. Modernism fostered a period of experimentation in the arts from the late 19th to the mid-20th century, particularly in the years following World War I. In an era characterized by industrialization, the nearly global adoption of capitalism, rapid social change, and advances in science and the social sciences (e.g., Freudian theory), Modernists felt a growing alienation...

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