Modernistic

Modernistic is an English adjective describing qualities associated with modernism or resembling the aesthetic, theoretical, or cultural aims of modernist movements. It is often used to indicate a departure from traditional forms and conventions, favoring experimentation, innovation, or abstraction. The term can apply to art, architecture, literature, music, design, and other cultural fields.

In practice, modernistic refers to works or approaches that embrace break with past styles, seek new means of expression, or respond to contemporary life and technologies. In architecture and design, it may denote functional, simplified forms, exposed structural elements, and the use of new materials, though the term modernist is more commonly employed in scholarly contexts. In literature and the arts, modernistic works often emphasize fragmentation, subjective perspective, and experimental narrative or visual techniques.

The historical association of modernistic with modernism places it mainly in the late 19th through mid-20th centuries, though the exact temporal boundaries vary by discipline. Because modernism itself is a broad and contested movement, “modernistic” can sometimes be vague or overlapped with terms like modernist or contemporary, depending on author and period. Some critics prefer tighter usage of modernist to describe the movement, reserving modernistic for looser, retrospective, or stylistically derivative references.

See also: Modernism, Modernist, Modernity.