ABSTRACT
In light of the rise of New York as an art center, taking over from Paris, Franca broaches the pertinent topic of artistic centers. He considers the idea of the center from a broader perspective in which the new economic and political orders find in modern art the expression of sophistication and self-affirmation. The clash between Paris and New York poses questions that reach beyond the activities of artistic creation, as well as those of consumption. An observer wishing to reduce the phenomenon to mere “artistic” proportions, for fear of falling into the trap of facile sociology, would be sorely mistaken. The cultural situation cannot favor such a change: incorporated into two very distinct types of social life, American culture and French culture are served by very different, and in a way non-substitutable, values. The very idea of substitution sounds like an absurdity.
