文森特·梵高,《有絲柏的道路》,1889-1890年,現保存於克勒勒-米勒博物館(Kröller-Müller Museum)。亨利·德·圖盧茲-羅特列克,《在紅磨坊跳華爾茲的兩個女人》(Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec),1892年。保羅·塞尚,《泳客》(Les Grandes Baigneuses),1898-1905年。保羅·高更,《死亡的幽靈在注視》,1892年,現保存於諾克斯藝術館(Albright-Knox Art Gallery)。喬治·秀拉,《模特們》(Les Poseuses),1886-1888年,現保存於巴恩斯基金會(Barnes Foundation)。愛德華·孟克,《吶喊》,1893年。巴勃羅·畢卡索,《賣藝人家》,1905年,現保存於華盛頓國家美術館 。讓·梅金傑,《水禽的多彩景觀》(Paysage coloré aux oiseaux aquatiquesoil),1907年,現保存於巴黎現代藝術博物館。埃貢·席勒,《穿着淺藍色工作服的克里姆特》(Klimt in a light Blue Smock),1913年。馬克·夏卡爾,《我與村莊》,1911年。馬列維奇,《黑方塊》,1915年。馬塞爾·杜尚,《泉》,1917年。由阿爾弗雷德·施蒂格利茨拍攝。瓦西里·康丁斯基,《On White II》,1923年。
現代藝術的發展基於文森特·梵高(Vincent van Gogh),保羅·塞尚(Paul Cézanne),保羅·高更(Paul Gauguin),喬治·秀拉(Georges Seurat)和亨利·德·圖盧茲-羅特列克(Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec)等畫家所留下來的藝術成果,這些都是現代藝術的發展必不可少的。20世紀初,亨利·馬蒂斯(Henri Matisse)和其他幾位年輕藝術家,包括原始立體主義畫家喬治·布拉克(Georges Braque),安德烈·德蘭(André Derain),拉烏爾·杜菲(Raoul Dufy),讓·梅金傑(Jean Metzinger)和莫里斯·德·弗拉芒克(Maurice de Vlaminck)以「狂野」、「多彩」、「富有表現力」的藝術風格徹底衝擊了巴黎藝術界,其風格被批評家稱之為野獸派。馬蒂斯(Matisse)所繪的油畫《舞蹈(英語:Dance (Matisse))》是標誌着他職業生涯中的一大轉折,同時,這也是現代繪畫發展的關鍵點。[3]它詮釋了馬蒂斯早期受部落藝術(Tribal art)影響下所散發的藝術魅力:冷藍綠色背景與人物暖色調的強烈對比,以及裸體舞蹈的節奏連續性傳達出了情感解放和享樂主義的意象。
"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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