CCD international seminar: What do we still call a masterpiece? A statistical conclusion on the role of the canon

Voica Pu?ca?iu PhD, is a lecturer in Modern and Contemporary Art History at Babe?-Bolyai University. In her research she focuses on a sociological approach to art as well as on collective memory and methods of Digital Art History. The theme of this seminar started from a survey over what people call a ‘masterpiece’. The over 200 respondents were fine art and art history students and scholars from two Cluj-Napoca universities and they were all asked to name 3 to 5 works of art which they would consider masterpieces. The artworks could belong to any style or medium of the visual arts. Expanding and challenging the cannon is – at least in theory – a common practice (Hessel, 2022; Danto, 1995Broude & Gerrard, 1996; etc. ) and it is, more often than not the declaration of most lecturers interviewed during this survey. And yet the canon provides structure and safety (Langfeld, 2018) and is both a form of cultural memory (Assmann, 2010) and a generator of further collective memories. The results of this survey further prove, that at least in using the term ‘masterpiece’ the classical art historical cannon was being upheld as the range of artworks mentioned is particularly limited.

Zoom: https://ju-se.zoom.us/j/62802970001