The complexity and historical depth of ‘The Asian Modern’ in art is indicated beginning with the Indonesian artists Raden Saleh (1811-1880), Sudjojono (1913-1986), and F. X. Harsono (born 1949). Discussion is then made of contemporaneity through examining the work of K.C.S Panicker in India and Park Seo-bo in Korea, before going back to the work of F.X. Harsono [Indonesia] compared with that of Zhang Peili [China] for the 1970s through to the 1990s. Reference is also made to problems the notion of contemporaneity in art itself as theorized by Smith and Enwezor, and where modern and contemporary art in Asia fits this discussion or does not.