Modernism

Modernism was a movement that began in the early 1900's. It was a group of people who were questioning how things, especially art, functioned. They were trying to take things down to the essence of what they were. Painters were painting for the sake of painting. Modernists did not want to create an illusion but to emphasize the heart of painting; the flat surface and paint. That is how we ended up with artists such as Mondrian and Pollock. Both artists were focused not on imagery but on formal elements.