文森特·梵高,《有丝柏的道路》,1889-1890年,现保存于克勒勒-米勒博物馆(Kröller-Müller Museum)。亨利·德·土鲁斯-罗特列克,《在红磨坊跳华尔兹的两个女人》(Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec),1892年。保罗·塞尚,《泳客》(Les Grandes Baigneuses),1898-1905年。保罗·高更,《死亡的幽灵在注视》,1892年,现保存于诺克斯艺术馆(Albright-Knox Art Gallery)。乔治·秀拉,《模特们》(Les Poseuses),1886-1888年,现保存于巴恩斯基金会(Barnes Foundation)。爱德华·孟克,《呐喊》,1893年。巴勃罗·毕卡索,《卖艺人家》,1905年,现保存于华盛顿国家美术馆 。让·梅金杰,《水禽的多彩景观》(Paysage coloré aux oiseaux aquatiquesoil),1907年,现保存于巴黎现代艺术博物馆。埃贡·席勒,《穿著浅蓝色工作服的克里姆特》(Klimt in a light Blue Smock),1913年。马克·夏卡尔,《我与村庄》,1911年。马列维奇,《黑方块》,1915年。马塞尔·杜尚,《泉》,1917年。由阿尔弗雷德·施蒂格利茨拍摄。瓦西里·康丁斯基,《On White II》,1923年。
现代艺术的发展基于文森特·梵高(Vincent van Gogh),保罗·塞尚(Paul Cézanne),保罗·高更(Paul Gauguin),乔治·秀拉(Georges Seurat)和亨利·德·土鲁斯-罗特列克(Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec)等画家所留下来的艺术成果,这些都是现代艺术的发展必不可少的。20世纪初,亨利·马蒂斯(Henri Matisse)和其他几位年轻艺术家,包括原始立体主义画家乔治·布拉克(Georges Braque),安德烈·德兰(André Derain),拉乌尔·杜菲(Raoul Dufy),让·梅金杰(Jean Metzinger)和莫里斯·德·弗拉芒克(Maurice de Vlaminck)以“狂野”、“多彩”、“富有表现力”的艺术风格彻底冲击了巴黎艺术界,其风格被批评家称之为野兽派。马蒂斯(Matisse)所绘的油画《舞蹈(英语:Dance (Matisse))》是标志著他职业生涯中的一大转折,同时,这也是现代绘画发展的关键点。[3]它诠释了马蒂斯早期受部落艺术(Tribal art)影响下所散发的艺术魅力:冷蓝绿色背景与人物暖色调的强烈对比,以及裸体舞蹈的节奏连续性传达出了情感解放和享乐主义的意象。
"One way of understanding the relation of the terms 'modern,' 'modernity,' and 'modernism' is that aesthetic modernism is a form of art characteristic of high or actualized late modernity, that is, of that period in which social, economic, and cultural life in the widest sense [was] revolutionized by modernity ... [this means] that modernist art is scarcely thinkable outside the context of the modernized society of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Social modernity is the home of modernist art, even where that art rebels against it." Cahoone 1996, p. 13.
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