The installations can be found in the “Art of the Western World” gallery on the first floor and offer audiences the opportunity to see the progression in the history of Western art.
“Mini Masterpieces” contains prints from the 15th century German artists Barthel and Hans Sebel Betham. The artists became known as the “Little Masters” for their skill at printmaking on surfaces of only a few square inches. Using very little size, they were able to depict scenes of great detail, according to the Art Museum.
"The Wedding of Cena" portrays 10 people in a vivid scene on a surface about half the size of a cell phone screen. Compared to Alfred Leslie’s towering “Portrait of Lisa Bigelow" near the installation, the difference in size between “Mini Masterpieces” and other paintings in the gallery is apparent. The minute details in the “Mini Masterpieces” require close viewing.
“Divided Nations” concerns artistic depictions of politicians. The installation features four pieces from Honore Daumier and an engraving by American Robert E. Whitechurch, according to the museum’s website.
The invention of the lithograph a half-century before had made mass reproduction of an image possible, according to the museum. The manipulation of a politicians likeness was a risk for the politician and a source of political speech for the artist.
The caricatures were first published in popular French newspaper “Le Charivari” along with commentary. Daumier had already been imprisoned for publishing satire related to the French aristocracy before completing these caricatures of politicians.
The pieces are ?presented in the museum beside English translations of the original captions.
The technological advances of the industrial age were thematic for the British artists featured in another installation titled “Vorticism: The Worker and the Machine.”
“The New Cable” by Sybil Andrews portrays a large group of figures working with a pulley cable against a sky blue ?background.
Vorticism began shortly before World War I and ended shortly thereafter, according to the Museum of Modern Art website, but the short-lived movement produced representations of human interaction with the environment.
Christopher RW Nevinson’s “Loading the Ship” is another piece featured in the installation.
