Much of the visual art produced since 1960 is neither pessimistic not optimistic in its world-view. It is mainly indifferent; indeed, it sometimes seems almost embarassed by the existential preoccupations of the 1950's generation of artists. Still, its disparagement concept of artists who affim meaning--and even of the traditional concepts of art itself, as a process of imposing order on raw materials--has nihi;istic implications. In the overall picture of Modernism, despite the exceptions, there can be no question but that there is a major trend toward the loss of meaning. According to the literary critic Irving Howe, nihilism is "the central preoccupation of Modernist literature."