Modernism and Modern Art

Clement Greenberg's article, Modernist Painting, sums up modernism as follows. "The use of the characteristic methods of a discipline to criticize the discipline itself...to entrench it more firmly in its area of competence." Therefore, modernism is criticized from the inside in an effort to prove that art is "valuable in its own right." It called particular attention to the fact that painting is flat. It wanted to showcase the flat plane of canvas in order to separate painting from the other arts. Instead of trying to mimic other arts and forms through shading, coloring, or perspective, painting wanted to show that it was valuable as an art in and of itself. By Clement's definition, modernism is the movement focused on looking critically at how painting can separate itself and stand apart from the other arts and therefore focus on its unique ability to contribute to culture and the arts.

Modern art is any art that attempts to orient itself towards flatness. It is art that does not attempt to create the illusion of space or form. Instead it is meant to be viewed as a flat plane.