Great post. Resteemed.

That distinction between modern and contemporary is very important - good work pointing that out. This may not be the exact beginning of modern art, but it seems to me that everything before Modern did not incorporate exploration into what we now call "art" meaning exploring how art allows the artists to tell a story or explore how to make a thought or opinion apparent through an artistic medium. Artists before this time were usually hired to accurately represent things, mostly royal portraits. I believe it was Goya who first created art where he started to reveal his own opinions about the subjects he was painting. This is just my own thinking about "modern" vs. older art. Modern art as a creative and intellectual representation rather than simply visual realistic representation. Following you now.