Philippe Dagen's polemic on art's marginalization in contemporary society

In his 2002 essay 'L'Art impossible' (Grasset), art critic and Sorbonne professor Philippe Dagen argues that art, culture, and artists occupy a derisory place in contemporary society, dominated by economics and entertainment. He decries the mummification of heritage and public indifference to living artists, citing Panofsky's observation that only a fraction would notice if all artists ceased activity. Dagen critiques the art world's internal ideologies, including obsolete beliefs and a diffuse but omnipresent ideology. He challenges the notion of art as subversion, arguing that artists like Vincent Corpet, Marc Desgrandchamps, and Stéphane Pencréac'h offer more critical perspectives without claiming social function. Dagen compares today's 'sympa' demagogy to 19th-century academicism, asserting that institutional choices remain bureaucratic and risk-averse, favoring consensus over novelty. He defends subjective criticism, writing in the first person against pseudo-scientific jargon that has burdened French art criticism since the 1970s. Dagen advocates for imagination and individuality against realism and anonymity, stating that art is 'the defense of the name against the number'—a voice affirming singular existence against absorption. He calls for defending particularism against the daily bombardment of television images, citing works by Corpet, François Rouan, and Pascal Convert as exemplary.