Modern art began in the middle 1800s when the advent of photography seemed to make painting obsolete. If you could simply photograph something, why draw or paint it? So, artists had to reinvent art, making it more personal, impressionistic, expressionistic, abstract, deconstructed, or minimalistic. In fact, art became whatever the artist said it was. Or, put another way, the artwork was merely a reflection of the artist himself or herself.