How a Banana Sold for $150,000 : Modern Art
January 27, 2026 – Los Angeles: This video from Crash Course Art History explores the origins and global nature of Modern Art, challenging the traditional narrative that it was purely a European invention.
The Definition of Modernism
While “modern” usually means current, in art history, it refers to a specific movement called modernism that began in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This era was defined by artists rejecting traditional styles and subjects in favor of new ways to represent a rapidly changing world. Factors like new technology (railroads, phones), urbanization, the rise of psychology, and the chaos of the World Wars pushed artists to move away from realistic representation and toward abstraction—using lines, shapes, and colors to evoke feelings and ideas rather than recreating physical reality.
Beyond the European Narrative
Traditional art history often credits the birth of abstraction to European men like Kandinsky and Mondrian. However, abstract forms have existed in global cultural traditions for centuries. Furthermore, famous modernists like Picasso were heavily influenced by non-Western art, such as African masks. This influence is often critiqued as primitivism, where European artists appropriated styles from colonized cultures without acknowledging their original context or cultural significance.
Decentering Europe
The video discusses “decentering” Europe in art history, viewing it not as the sole hub of innovation but as one part of a vast, interconnected network. Using the example of Joaquin Torres-García’s Inverted America, the video illustrates how perspective changes based on cultural identity. By looking at “multiple modernisms,” we see how artists in post-colonial countries—like Wifredo Lam in Cuba or Gaganendranath Tagore in India—blended local traditions with modernist techniques to create unique styles that reflected their own national identities.
Globalism and Artistic Exchange
In the 20th century, advances in transportation and communication made the world “smaller,” leading to a complex web of cross-cultural influences. Modernism is presented not as a single movement from one place, but as countless global responses to a changing world. Artistic influence knows no borders, and Modern Art is a testament to the impact of the entire world reaching and influencing itself.