Modern vs Contemporary vs Present-Day disambiguation

These words all seem similar, but they refer to different time periods.

"Modern" refers to a specific time period from the late 19th century to the middle 20th century. Art in the most prevalent style from this period is called "modernist". The Museum of Modern Art makes this distinction clear.

"Contemporary" refers to a relevant style for a given time period, regardless of which period is in question. Artworks are contemporaries of each other or to a period.

"Present-day" refers to today, now, maybe even within the past few years. Present-day artworks are contemporary to the present moment.

If you're looking at "The Voyage of Life: Childhood" (1842), the painting is close to the time period of modernism, but it's Hudson River School or late Romantic, not modern.

If you're a 2024 person looking at a Duchamp sculpture, the sculpture is modern (because it was made in that specific time period), but it's not present day (it was made in the early 20th century, not recently).

If you're a 2024 person looking at a Duchamp sculpture and a Picasso painting from the 1910s, both the sculpture and the painting are modern. They are also contemporary to each other. But they are not from the present day.

If you're a 2024 person looking at an Emmi Whitehorse painting, the painting is probably modernist in aesthetic, contemporary to you and made in the present day.

If you're a 2024 person playing Metal Gear Solid 2, that video game is neither modern (typically the game is considered postmodern) nor present-day. The game is contemporary to 2001 when it was released.

If you're playing Metal Gear Solid 2 in 2001, then the game is contemporary and present-day and still postmodern.

Again, these terms are not interchangeable.

In art contexts, critics and audiences sometimes mix them up. They use "modern" as a timeframe for the current moment when they're really referring to "present-day". Or they describe an artwork's style in reference to "present-day" when they're really referring to a contemporary style that has changed before present-day. A period piece might have a lot of modern or contemporary features, but a present-day period piece isn't a period piece.