As an artist, when I think of modern art, I think art has been created recently, and trying to think of a larger scope of history, I think of the latter than in the past 100 years. In many ways, this is right, but not completely. In the world of art, different art styles and isms known. This probably sounds familiar to you from an old college humanities class. It is likely that he learned on naturalism, romanticism, realism, impressionism, and more. Well, some of these isms are heads main categories with many sub-isms under them, and that's true with modernism.
Modernism was a movement that encompasses all that is in other movements. Modernism took place during the first part of the 20th century, and even sub-categories in modernity can be very different from each other, they do have in common the rejection of naturalism and scholarship, the two styles that followed the rigid rules of paint that could be taught in school, and that closely resembled the natural world. Instead Modernists favored the experimental art.
The modern world is changing, so that art had to change too. Modern art and explores the modern world again, and the artists decided to do this in several ways. But regardless of the chosen form of expression, all forms are an exploration of each artist's own vision of life in their own way. Some of the sub-isms of modernity, and to explore include: Expressionism, which explores the emotions and states of mind, constructivism, which focuses on the social, Surrealism tries to express the unconscious mind, and cubism, which explores the nature of representation.
These are just some of the trends covering modernism, some are very different, and others overlap with each other, but all these artists, art is a way of discovering the truth, it is a modern truth of Futurism or universal, a truth of Suprematism. They all tried, in his way, to seek answers to fundamental questions about the nature of art and human experience.
Modernism lasted about three quarters of the 20th century and the 1970s, modern artists moved in Post Modernism. Surprisingly, the architects who took the lead in the development of Modernism Post, but much of the modern visual art note is a critique of modern society.
Understanding a little about modernity and modernism message is useful when it comes to modern art. It is also good to be familiar with the jargon of the art world, to use it properly, especially to avoid confusion when talking to the experts.
So back to the question of what is modern art? For the artist, all the art created in the last 100 years is modern art because modern times refers to current or recent. Modern art, in my opinion, includes all these isms. Modern art does not appear to directly address the issue, but it is abstract. It is more difficult to understand but sometimes understanding is a mute point, art is to be enjoyed.