I am far from being able to tell anything serious on the question. I have begun to read on the topic, but not all the arguments are converging...

An elementary Website: the lectures from Paul Getty Art Center

French books:
Luc Ferry, Le sens du Beau, Editions Cercle d'Art, 1998
Yves Michaud, La crise de l'Art contemporain, Presses Universitaires de France, Paris 1997
Jean-Marie Schaeffer, L'art de l'âge moderne, Gallimard, Paris 1992
Rainer Rochlitz, L'Art au banc d'essai, Gallimard, Paris 1992

In English:
Norbert Lynton, The story of Modern Art, Phaidon, Oxford 1980

There is nothing easily digestible and I cannot promise that anything will ever emerge from all that.