This book presents a refreshing new approach to avant-garde art by demonstrating that a genuine core of modernism manifests a positive, life-affirming attitude. Donald Kuspit and Lynn Gamwell challenge the assumption that disintegration and negativity provide the most authentic artistic responses to this century's gloomy zeitgeist. Lavishly illustrated, their book includes colorful images of paintings, sculptures, and decorative arts, as well as photographs of spectacular gardens.