The names of some periods in art history can create confusion. Consider the term “Modern Art.” Art historians have observed that artists of earlier times also perceived themselves as modern. Renaissance humanists thought they were revolutionaries in the 15th century. Modern Art refers to art created roughly between 1867 and 1975. Major movements included Impressionism, Cubism, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, and Pop Art. To human eyes, Modern pieces reflect change, including technological, social, scientific, and political changes. This period also included the emergence of modern governments.
Claude Monet’s Impression – Sunrise (1867) was the painting that marked the beginning of Impressionism and Modernism. For two decades, French painters and other artists studied the way light changes as you create a landscape or another scene. In Cezanne’s A Modern Olympia (1873-1874), the observer sees another example of how Modern Art abandoned Realism and Naturalism in sketchy borders between forms. A nude woman rests on a swath of clouds in a very earthy composition