Deriving from the
Italian and
Burgundian courts of the
Renaissance, the notion that the state had a key role to play in the sponsoring of artistic production and that the arts were linked to national prestige was found in France from at least the 16th century on. During the pre-revolutionary period, these ideas are apparent in such things as the creation of the , the
Académie de peinture et de sculpture and other state-sponsored institutions of artistic production, and through the cultural policies of
Louis XIV's minister
Jean-Baptiste Colbert. The modern post of Minister of Culture was created by
Charles de Gaulle in 1959 and the first officeholder was the writer
André Malraux. Malraux established the goals of the
droit à la culture ('right to culture'), an idea which had been incorporated in the
Constitution of France and the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), by democratising access to culture, while also achieving the
Gaullist aim of elevating the "grandeur" ('greatness') of post-war France. To this end, he created numerous regional cultural centres throughout France and actively sponsored the arts. Malraux's artistic tastes included the modern arts and the avant-garde, but on the whole he remained conservative. Under President
François Mitterrand the Minister of Culture was
Jack Lang who showed himself to be far more open to popular cultural production, including
jazz,
rock and roll,
rap music,
graffiti,
bande dessinées,
fashion and
food. His famous phrase "économie et culture, même combat" ('economy and culture: it's the same fight') is representative of his commitment to cultural democracy and to active national sponsorship and participation in cultural production. In addition to the creation of the
Fête de la Musique and overseeing the French Revolution bicentennial (1989), he was in charge of the
massive architectural program of the
François Mitterrand years (the so-called
Grands travaux; 'Great Works') that gave permission for the building of the
Bibliothèque nationale, the new
Louvre, the
Arab World Institute, the
Musée d'Orsay, the
Opéra-Bastille, the "
Grande Arche" of
La Défense (the Parisian business quarter), the new seat of the
French Ministry for the Economy and Finance, the
Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Centre, and the
Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie and
Cité de la Musique, both in the
Parc de la Villette. The Ministry of
Jacques Toubon was notable for a number of laws (the "
Toubon Laws") enacted for the preservation of the
French language, both in advertisements (all ads must include a French translation of foreign words) and on the radio (35% of songs on French radio stations must be in French), ostensibly in reaction to the presence of English. ==Ministers of Culture==