Time & Place

The bourgeoning arts scene in Mexico during the first half of the 20th century is usually associated with the Mexican School of Painting and with muralism, its best-known movement. A realist practice promoted and supported by the Mexican government, muralism aimed to bring art closer to the people of Mexico. In turn, a large portion of the work produced between 1900 and 1950 used clear, direct political and social messages.

Many types of images and objects are used in Tibetan ceremonies, including thangkas (portable Tibetan religious paintings), votive bronze sculptures, small stupas, the conch shell, used as a musical instrument [2009.15.2], and the purba, or ritual dagger.

In the second half of the 19th century, American silver manufacturers became regarded as among the best in the world. This marked a surprising shift in international recognition, as most American silverware produced before the 1840s was made in small shops for a local market, usually imitating fashionable European styles. 

Staffordshire, in central England, became a center of ceramic production beginning in the mid-17th century both due to the thick layers of clay that lay only a few feet below its surface, and the abundance of available coal to fuel kiln fires. The 100 square mile industrial area known as 'Staffordshire' encompasses the towns of Burslem, Fenton, Hanley, Longton, Stoke, and Tunstall, and is collectively known as the S

A native of Alsace, Christian Dorflinger (1828-1915) trained as a glass-maker in France and emigrated to the United States in 1846. In 1852, he acquired the Long Island Flint Glass Works in Brooklyn, New York and by 1860 two others (including Greenpoint Glass Works), all of which made flint glass.

The art moderne style was prompted by contemporary French art deco design of the 1920s. The term art deco was derived from the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes (International Exposition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts) in Paris, though not coined until the 1960s.