Modernism is a general term for a movement in Western art beginning about 1860 and lasting through the 1970s. Essentially, Modern artists recognized the validity of contemporaneous (modern) events for subject matter, as opposed to drawing their inspiration from the past.
Modernism rose from a complex mix of social, technical, and aesthetic developments during the early 19th century. At its philosophical core was a radical attitude about the relationship of art to both the past and the present.