modern art

American

noun

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

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

She’s been creating powerful, thought-provoking artwork since the ’60s and her pieces have been shown at the Smithsonian, the Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago and LACMA, as well as museums and galleries around the world.

From Los Angeles Times

In 1962 Kertész headed to the Museum of Modern Art with 500 prints, answering an open call from John Szarkowski, the museum’s new director of photography, for portfolios by hopefuls seeking their big break.

From The Wall Street Journal

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

Schad pointed him in the direction of Alfred Barr, the first director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, who created a diagram in the 1930s that traced the lineage of every genre of art from 1890 on — Synthetism, Neo-Impressionism, Cubism, Surrealism, Expressionism, Abstract — back to Japanese prints.

From Los Angeles Times

"Today, not only are we catching up with the West, but we have surpassed it in many aspects of daily life," Witucki said, not far from gleaming skyscrapers and a new site for the Warsaw Museum of Modern Art, designed by US architect Thomas Phifer.

From Barron's

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023