Modernism and contemporary art

A renewed interest in modernism as seen in recent years within the field of contemporary art seems surely to be interesting. There are no doubt intriguing forms connected to modernism and a wide range of promising artistic possibilities to be explored and developed. Especially at a formal level modernism has indeed something to offer. What remains, however, is the challenge at the same time to register and reflect upon what modernism has excluded. Because modernism is also still the long and sad story of exclusions and marginalization. Femininity and the artistic renderings of the lived life experienced by the feminine I are issues foreign to modernism. Just to name an example. Contemporary dealings with modernism could take the exclusions of modernism as their starting point. Adopting the exclusion perspective on a fresh take on modernism could be an exiting way to go and result in genuinely new works and a wider and more inclusive conception of what modernism can be.