When Has Modernism Failed? was originally published in 1984, it was one of the first books to confront the social situation of contemporary art. Suzi Gablik’s vivid description of how the heroic idealism of twentieth-century art had degenerated into a despiritualized marketplace of styles, forms and attitudes challenged and provoked a multitude of readers. Here was a critic who was willing to add ethical, sociological and economic perspectives to her formidable credentials as an art critic in order to dissect an art milieu that seemed to be without purpose or moral authority. If Has Modernism Failed? was critical and provocative, its readers also found it inspirational. Arguing for a renewed moral, social and spiritual dimension in art, Gablik pointed to some encouraging developments. Now, in this revised and expanded edition, Gablik assesses the state of contemporary art at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Though there is still a highly commodified modernist and postmodernist art world – a world for which Gablik’s trenchant analysis is as relevant as ever – there is a burgeoning commitment to socially relevant and spiritually informed art. In a new prologue and two new chapters, Gablik looks at the promises and the problems of globalization, and the attempts of artists to integrate the concerns of the environment and the world with their art.