This is the basic question, plus a little confusing to reply to because the terms "contemporary," "modern," and "abstract" can be used interchangeably at times. Let us commence with "modern art." Modern art can be a classification of an art period that started around 1870 by Impressionists like Claude Monet. It is known that modern artists are the type who tried out new methods for seeing, expressing new ideas and methods. But technically the modern art movement ended across the 1960's and 70's when the term "postmodern" grew to become used and pop art took over as new thing.