An Application of the Model of the Differentiation on the Analysis of the Requalification of Sculptural Styles

A new model for the analyis of cultural goods and practices is proposed by H. Glevarec in his book entitled “The Differentiation” (2019) which presents itself as a critique to bourdieusian theory of capital and its applications on the analysis of the arts and culture.

P. Bourdieu’s analytical apparatus seem to reduce cultural values to forms of capital, thereby focusing on their utilitarian or “interested” usages by the social agents competing within the cultural and artistic fields. The Differentiation distinguishes cultural values from social values and from the different forms of capital, on the basis of an anti-utilitarian definition of value.

Drawing upon a doctoral research on the heritagization of modern cemeteries (France-Greece-Cyprus), my presentation will illustrate the consequences of this theory on the analysis of what happens to sculptural works when classified as “historical monuments”.

Funerary art is said to have disappeared from the cemeteries and churches (Panofsky, 1964) announcing the end of authenticity in the representations of death and the dead. A modern funerary canon comparable to the classical and gothic style are not been observed in modern societies, and standardization replaces massively the singular artistic forms.

However, some works are selected to be conserved as part of the heritage of “remarkable” modern cemeteries. As such, they mobilize professionals of conservation who debate their “artistic interest” and “monumental character”. Do the social values of actors related to their history transform automatically into cultural and aesthetic values?

Instead of answering this question by supposing the “legitimacy” of dominant styles, the analysis focuses on the different norms of conservation that emerge when objects of the past are requalified and treated as heritage. This distinction allows to replace analytical nostalgia by a social-realist approach of the transformation of artistic forms and their perception during processes of heritagization of modern cemeteries.