The Honesty of Modern Art

Modern art isn't trying to destroy the past, it is just obsessed with being honest.

Clement Greenberg explained that for painting to survive, it had to stop pretending to be a window into

another world. Old masters used tricks to hide the canvas, but modernists like

Manet and Mondrian wanted you to stare right at it. They realized the only thing painting

has that sculpture doesn't is a flat surface. So, they stopped faking

3D space and started celebrating the paint itself. It is not a break from tradition,

it is just painting finally admitting that it is flat.