In the 1980s, the number of institutions dedicated to contemporary art exploded in France. Numerous museums came into being -Carré d'art, CAPC Bordeaux, Rochechouart, Grenoble, etc. At the same time, the Fonds Régionaux d'art contemporain (regional contemporary art funds) were created, while funds dedicated to supporting contemporary art grew rapidly. Voices were raised to criticize the marked presence of the public authorities in culture, and French contemporary art was accused of being institutional art, artificially supported by the public authorities, while private initiative was discreet. In the early 2000s, the Quemin report showed that French artists were under-represented on the international scene and in foreign museums. Today, the situation seems to have changed radically. The budgets of public institutions have shrunk, while private initiatives have expanded with the emergence of major collectors such as François Pinault and Bernard Arnault. The 2003 Aillagon law on patronage accompanied this trend, easing the conditions required to create a foundation and introducing new tools such as endowment funds. At the same time, the introduction of a tax incentive policy in favor of contemporary art - allowing companies to deduct the purchase of contemporary art from their tax base under certain conditions - has greatly boosted demand. Galleries have been given assistance to develop their presence abroad at art fairs, and are also offered financial support for the first exhibition they organize with another gallery abroad of one of the artists they represent. What have been the effects of this transformation in French public policy towards contemporary art? Have there been any repercussions on the market and on the careers of French artists? Has the lack of recognition from which French artists suffered in the early 2000s subsided, or is it still the case?
The aim of this paper is to review the evolution of public policy towards contemporary art, and to examine its impact on the international recognition of French artists. Have the weakening role of institutions and the introduction of support measures for a French presence abroad, while private demand has grown, succeeded in establishing the presence of our artists abroad? From a methodological point of view, we combine theoretical and empirical approaches. The analysis of public policies conducted specifically in the contemporary art world is carried out in relation to theoretical works that study the links between public policy and cultural management (see e.g. Tobelem, 2023). The impact of policies will then be addressed from a particular angle, that of the careers of contemporary visual artists. To do so, we will draw on a large database compiled by Wondeur AI (https://wondeur.ai/), to which we have exclusive access thanks to our collaboration with Sophie Perceval. Co-author of this paper, Sophie Perceval, together with Olivier Berger and a team of Canadian researchers, founded the independent research laboratory Wondeur AI, which uses powerful algorithms to map artists' exhibitions worldwide in real time. Hundreds of millions of historical data on exhibitions, institutions and galleries are collected, revealing the evolution of legitimization networks at work in the art world. A comparative analysis of the exhibition trajectories of artists from the French scene with those of artists from other scenes (notably German, British or American) leads us to see to what extent the inflexion observed in the conduct of public policies has had repercussions on the artists' career paths. The first results obtained to date show that, paradoxically, artists from the French scene (defined here as French nationals or those who have had more than half their exhibitions in France) receive less support in their country of origin than do German, British or American artists. While French galleries devote 54% of their exhibitions to artists from the French scene and French institutions 51%, German galleries devote 72% of their exhibitions to artists from the German scene and institutions 68%. These percentages are even higher for the American scene. The view that French contemporary art is highly supported by the public authorities is far from being borne out. The discussions in our paper show the extent to which this result is - or is not - the direct result of a shift in public policy and we underline what are the consequences of this result for the career of the French artists abroad. In addition, we make a number of recommendations to influence public policy so that, while remaining open to diversity, it does not hinder the careers of artists from the French scene.

Quoted references :
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Quemin A. (2002), L'art contemporain international : entre les institutions et le marché : Le rapport disparu, Jacqueline Chambon.
Tobelem J-M (2023), Politique et gestion de la culture, Armand Colin
Saoudi M. (2018), « Le mécénat culturel Vers la fin de l’exception culturelle française », Gestion et Finances publiques, n°2, pages 87 à 91
Chantepie P., Kancel S. (2021), Mission prospective sur les FRACs, Rapport IGAC n° : 2021 -21.