Modernism
MovementEurope, then worldwidec. 1890–1950
The break from representation — form, colour and surface as the subject.
Modernism is less a style than a change of question: instead of asking what a painting depicts, it asks what a painting is. Colour stops describing objects and starts acting on its own; the flat surface stops pretending to be a window. Everything from Fauvism to Cubism to pure abstraction follows from that shift, and most contemporary painting is still working through its consequences.
What to look for
- Flattened space with little or no perspective
- Colour used structurally rather than descriptively
- Visible process — brushwork, edges, ground
- Subject subordinated to composition
How it is made
Predominantly oil on canvas, with the paint layer deliberately visible rather than smoothed away.
Before you buy
Provenance matters more here than in almost any other category, because the market is large and well forged. Ask for documented ownership history.
Other movements