In recent cultural political discourse, there has been increasing talk about masterpieces – those works that embody what is established, canonical and reliable. But what exactly makes a work of art a masterpiece? Is it elevated to that status because of its technical perfection, its impact on contemporary audiences or perhaps its survival in posterity? Many works that are considered classics today were once derided as impertinent, aberrant or simply incomprehensible. Others were celebrated as masterpieces in their time and continue to be undisputed points of reference. There are no objective means to measure mastery; rather it is a flexible term that is constantly being redefined.

The term ‘masterpiece’ is more than a mere aesthetic category. Masterpieces do not simply appear out of thin air. They arise through discourse and institutional decisions that define what is considered worth promoting and preserving. In this regard, every debate concerning classics is one of power, memory and responsibility: Who gets to decide what is preserved and what should be afforded attention in the first place?

In this second issue of fünf zu eins, we present five pieces that reevaluate the concept of masterpieces. In ‘Herrlichkeit 1 und 2’ (‘Magnificence 1 and 2’), the actress Zora Schemm plays with our expectations of the sublime – and exposes how deeply our concept of artistic greatness is rooted in collective patterns. The curator Juliane Schickedanz from the Kunsthalle Osnabrück describes how her museum negotiates between artistic experimentation, social expectation and institutional responsibility every day – a balancing act that reveals that mastery is more a matter of education than stubborn endurance.

The author Florian Illies takes the example of Thomas Mann to explore what the legacy of this monumental figure of literary history can offer the art world today. For her new piece ‘The Scholar’s Record’, composer Mariam Rezaei delved into the 75-year-old archive of the Donaueschingen Festival. Building on what was once considered the unwieldy works of New Music, Rezaei has created a turntable quartet that sets tradition and the present day in motion. And in his photo essay, artist Eric Meier recalls how strongly political systems have influenced the term ‘masterpiece’. He shows how a once-celebrated promise of the future, such as socialist realism in former East Germany, can become in hindsight a symbol of a bygone social order.

Perhaps the task of contemporary art does not lie so much in creating eternal masterpieces but rather keeping the door open to what is possible – in moments that disturb or move us, that shift our perception and offer a glimpse of the future.

Let us stay the course then – curious about all things new, incomplete and contradictory. And all that may someday become a masterpiece.

Yours sincerely,
Katarzyna Wielga-Skolimowska
Kirsten Haß

Executive Board of the German Federal Cultural Foundation