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I've discusses modern art in previous articles but never at an exorbitant rate. Much of what I know of modern art comes from art school. As I have said in other articles, and as it was told to me, we are no longer in the period of modern art. Modern art ended in 2000 and we are currently in the contemporary period.

The best definition I ever head for modern art as given to me by an excellent professor. Modern art is art that is completely and totally about itself.

Now that definition warrants some further explanation. Art that is about itself does not mean that it is not about other things. Modern art can be about color, line, brush strokes, complexity, special relationships, form, negative space and a list of many other things. It can be about several or even a multiple amount of aspects at once.

Think about that for a moment and review work that you believe to be modern art. Think about the work you might have seen at The MoMA, The Met or any other large museum featuring modern art.

However when it comes down to it all of that, all the information and themes the work alludes to is evident with itself. For the bulk of art history art was about religion and the after life. It later changed to be about portraiture, royalty, landscapes, civic pride and so on, all the while though art was made for a purpose. Art was made for something.

It was not until the modern art period that art was made for the sake of art. This is the period of cubism, da-daism, minimalism, pop art and op art. Aesthetic became more important then purpose. The idea of creating a beautiful object, in one form or another, was the focus. Much of the work or the period was abstract or abstracted in some way.

Painters like Jackson Pollack, Robert Motherwell, Helen Frankenthaler and Robert Rauschenberg are excellent examples of painting that explore color, shape, technique and balance. Where sculptors like David Smith, Henry Moore, Louise Nevelson and Noguchi worked with special relationships, form, complexity and simplicity.

All these artists kept their work about the work and produced fantastic modern art. The pieces produced can be enjoyed for their beauty alone and do not require any deeper knowledge of a time or historical movement to be enjoyed. Modern art has the unique distinction of being able to be accepted for what it is, not as a vehicle for a person's political, sexual, religious statement.

Learn more about this author, D. Kearney Sparano.
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