What makes a masterpiece?

Indeed. Google "masterpiece" and you quickly find so-named companies dealing in pumpkins, glass eyes, barbecue sauce, tattoos and motels.

Yet people say the real things exist —- and not just at the High Museum of Art, where the acclaimed new exhibit "The Louvre and the Masterpiece" explores the roots of the word.

With a profusion of masterpieces in our midst —- legit and otherwise —- we asked artists and experts to help us define a masterpiece and suggest modern genius they have encountered.

Patterson Hood

Singer, songwriter and guitarist for Drive-By Truckers

"Timelessness, especially when combined with timeliness. For example, a book or film that captures a specific moment in time, but whose message is still relevant in any other time —- the way "To Kill A Mockingbird" took its 1930s setting and applied it to the early '60s civil rights struggle. A similar balance between simplicity and complexity as in a complex thought expressed in simple terms. An ability to transport and transcend. In art, an ability to move me in some possibly unconscious way each and every time I view it."

Recent masterpiece: "In film: 'Chinatown,' 'Raging Bull' and 'Network' come to mind. The first two 'Godfather' films, too. Two recent books that it would apply to have to be 'American Pastoral' by Philip Roth and 'The Road' by Cormac McCarthy. In music, as in most art, the term is often overused, but could certainly be applied to a wide range of styles from Miles Davis to the Stooges, from Tom Waits' 'Swordfishtrombones' to the Band's second album. ... Bringing it closer to home, I feel that the term applies to "Mrs. Jackson" by OutKast and the second album by the Glands, which is still my favorite all-time album to be made in Athens and favorite album so far this century."

Kojo Griffin

Painter

"To me, a masterpiece is the intersection of skill, practice, conceptual depth and what I would loosely term vision, that thing which drives people to create."

Recent masterpiece: "My work is based in narrative, so I'll mention two movies that stand out for me as masterpieces: 'Blade Runner' is my favorite science-fiction movie of all time. The other is 'Eve's Bayou,' which is an example of where I like to see black cinema go. 'Eve's Bayou' reminds me a lot of what I like about Alice Walker. It explores the complexity of African-American relationships and [mixes] real life and mysticism, which is an important aspect of African-American culture as it pertains to religion, both recognized religions and more indigenous religions."

Robert Spano

Music director, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra

"I don't believe in masterpieces. I don't think they exist. I think we create them and they're fictional. Because the world changes its mind every 50 years as to what a masterpiece is. So, in my field, for example, in the '60s there was a poll of symphony-going audiences and the most popular symphonist was Sibelius. Beethoven was No. 2 [laughs]. That changed over time.

For me the definition of a masterpiece is consensus at any given time. And that means it's not really defining something outside of one's perception objectively as being a masterpiece. It's accepting that these things are being called masterpieces right now and we don't know how the future will regard them. It's kind of like Abraham Lincoln's presidency: It wasn't well received while he was alive, but he's doing just fine now."

Amir Totem

Graffiti artist

"A masterpiece depends on three things —- the skill of the master, the master's expression in the artwork and the story. In [graffiti], it's not necessarily about hype, it's mostly skills. If you were to create a masterpiece, it would need to show skills and style. And we judge ourselves; we're not depending on the lay person. We know who's the baddest and who's not the baddest."

Recent masterpieces: [In graffiti] there is no one place I could say is like the Sistine Chapel. But there's Garrison Avenue in the South Bronx and the work by the Tats Cru. That's one of the most famous spots. And 125th Street in Harlem. The best graffiti artists in world go there to paint, no amateurs."

Tina McElroy Ansa

Author of "Taking After Mudear"

"When one usually thinks of a masterpiece, the very idea is a bit overwhelming. I think of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel, the body of work of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, Van Gogh's 'Starry Night,' Zora Neale Hurston's 'Their Eyes Were Watching God,' Spike Lee's epic 'Malcom X.' But as an artist who writes about mothers and daughters, about the people and culture of the African-American experience in the small Southern town of Mulberry, I hope that readers will consider the quiet and touching as well as the portentous and booming when thinking of masterpiece."

Recent masterpiece: "The closest I've come to a masterwork recently was in a hot, stuffy shotgun house at an arts festival in Alabama last year. There, I saw and was able to touch and smell some of the extraordinary quilts created by the women of Gee's Bend. The actual quilts —- masterworks of color and form and storytelling —- would have been enough to qualify as masterful work rooted in American history and culture."

Matt Maiellaro and Dave Willis

Co-creators "Aqua Teen Hunger Force," Cartoon Network's Adult Swim

"We think of Tyler Perry often," they joked. "We strive to be as funny as 'House of Payne.' I think we're going to start putting more men in dresses in our show. That's what defines a masterpiece for us. That's what we're all trying to achieve."

Recent masterpieces: "Jean-Claude Van Damme [movies]. Specifically 'Timecop' with Mr. Ron Silver. Because it spans all generations and touches the hearts of many."

Annette Cone-Skelton

President/CEO, Georgia Museum of Contemporary Art

"I believe a masterpiece to be a work of art that over time continues to be considered a significant work in the career of an artist. For an individual artist, it is that piece which reaches the pinnacle of an artist's work reaching the highest goals of skill and communication set by the artist."

Recent masterpieces: "I naturally turn my attention to Georgia artists. I consider three recent additions to MOCA-GA's permanent collection to be masterpieces. They are works by Larry Walker, Don Cooper and Danielle Roney. All three artists are ... at the very top of their careers. They have mastered their mediums and have honed their communication skills to the highest degree."

Henri Loyrette

President director, Musee du Louvre, Paris

"[A masterpiece] is a difficult thing to define because it changes all the time. In the Middle Ages it was a work made by a master, a proof of virtuosity. Now, it's a unique work in a sense, that when compared to other works, seems to be outstanding. But if you [ask] what are the masterpieces by Monet or Degas, it's more difficult. Because, you know, after a time, when you begin to work by series, by suite, it's not exactly the same question. I think it's a very didactic way to understand what is different between outstanding works and genius and normal works."

Recent masterpiece: "It's difficult to say: I think [American painter] Cy Twombly is a genius, but I would be embarrassed to [name] a masterpiece made by Cy Twombly. He makes so many paintings which are not single paintings. [In some cases], it's a wall series, you know. So it's difficult to say this one and not this one. ... We see masterpieces of today, yes, but it's not really a single work, not a closed work, I would say. It's something which more often has to do with work in progress in a way."

Jacob Gentry

Co-director of the horror film "The Signal"

"A masterpiece is timeless yet has a perfect synergy with the time and place in which it was created. An artist has to be connected with the ether of creativity ... the freshest and most relevant current of ideas that are available to everyone, but only the creator of the masterpiece has tuned in to it so acutely that they can channel it into a work in the simplest, the most efficient, the most perfect way possible —- the way the Beatles were able to say the most with the fewest words."

Recent masterpiece: " 'There Will Be Blood' is a serious contender for [movie] masterpiece status. It's about so much while being so simple and direct in its subject matter. For a movie set in the early 20th century, it is alarmingly relevant to our current times. No movie I've seen uses ambiguity to such astounding specificity."

David Brenneman

Curator of European art and director of collections and exhibitions, High Museum

"One of the basic criteria of a masterpiece is that it's a work of technical virtuosity. That's really the threshold for a masterpiece. Above and beyond that, it starts to get a little more complicated. In modern times, a masterpiece becomes suffused with the notion of genius. And how can you explain genius? Genius goes against the rules, genius breaks the rules. And so if you don't have rules to explain or judge something by, how do you judge it? There isn't a universally accepted definition of what constitutes a masterpiece in the modern sense of the word."