<!doctype html public «-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en»> http-equiv=content-type> This study examines the place of the arts in contemporary society. Beyond the illusion of autonomy and beyond strategies of pure aestheticization, what standing can art have in society and how can it change its status? In seeking answers to these questions, the author turns back to the 20th century and to the sometimes competing, sometimes complementary aesthetic currents of modernism and the avant-garde.
