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When did Modernism in the visual arts develop?

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Giacomo Balla: Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash — Modernism *Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash*, oil on canvas by Giacomo Balla, 1912; in the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, New York.

While the beginnings of Modernism in the visual arts cannot be precisely demarcated, it is generally agreed that the movement emerged in mid-19th-century France.1

The roots of Modernism are often traced to the work of painter Édouard Manet, who began breaking with traditional academic conventions in the 1860s by rejecting standard perspective and modeling in favor of emphasizing the flat surface of the canvas. This period marked a shift away from art serving the church or court, as artists increasingly sought to reflect the rapid social, material, and intellectual changes of an industrializing society.21

Following these initial developments, a succession of avant-garde movements—including Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, and later Cubism—further defined the Modernist era by repudiating past conventions and focusing on the intrinsic qualities of their media, such as line, form, and color. This period of experimentation continued through the mid-20th century.213