Comment by coldtea

A lot of people are confused by the term "modern art" in this.

This isn't meant to be about the idea of modern art in general, not about modernist art, or a "history of art" compatible conception of the term.

So whether "modern art started with the invention of the film camera" and other such claims about the late 19th here is irrelevant.

In the context of TFA and the CIA-related discussion, "modern art" refers mainly to abstract expressionism and to a lesser degree pop art and conceptual art, in US and Western Europe.

That was the scene and its sub-scenes which dominated the Western galleries and art world in the post "cold" war period, and for layman uses (and even for several critical treatments), it was synonymous with modern art, in the sense of the fine arts, in general. Hence the use of the term.

That's the way the term "modern art" is used in this.