This was a broad movement that considered all the avant-garde Isms of the first half of the 20th century.  Many of the different movements involved tended not to be compatible but all were in favor of experimental art and rejected the dominance of Naturalism.

All the modern-isms explored the fact that art needed to renew itself.  In Modernism, the artists exploration of their own vision was everything.  The common trend was to seek answers to fundamental questions about the nature of art and human experience.

Just some examples of the Isms that made up Modernism are: Cubism; Primitivism; Futurism; Expressionism; Constructivism; Neo-Plasticism; Surrealism; Dadaism; and Supermatism.

The paintings below represent Cubism, Surrealism, and Expressionism which were three important movements of the modernist artists.  Like many of the other movements of the time they explored art and what it represented making the intellect central.