Modernism

 As an art historical term, ‘modern’ refers to a period dating from the 1860s to 1970. What modernist artists all agreed on together was the desire to break away from the conventions of representational art. They ditched the old rules of colour, perspective and composition in order to work out their own visions and movement. Their attitudes were strengthened by scientific discoveries of the day that seemed to question the consistency of the ‘real’ world.

In addition to art, ‘Modernism’ affected a wide range of subjects such as music and architecture. There was also a big change in the nature of society which were machinery, faster travel, increased wealth of individuals causing the creation of the ‘middle class’ of society, greater individual freedoms, individuality of the creative ideas of artists, increase of consumerism, new discoveries and inventions and a sense of forgetting the past influences and traditions therefore the beginning of a new 'modern' world.