Art Exhibition Review: Thorne's Miniature Rooms

“Thorne’s Miniature Rooms,” The Art Institute of Chicago, 111 S. Michigan Avenue

A guest visiting the Art Institute of Chicago may be surprised to find a Georgian Period dining room, a serene Japanese meditation room and a 1930’s modern living room (at least what it meant to be modern 80 years ago) among the paintings, sculptures and other art exhibits. As if you stepped into the Twilight Zone, these three rooms along with 65 others can be found a mere few feet apart from each other stowed away in the basement of the prestigious art museum. With an amazing attention to detail and the help of several artists, Mrs. James Ward Thorne transports the viewer across continents and through various time periods with her miniature rooms gallery.

The exhibit credits Thorne as the unique vision behind the works of art; however, Claus Brandell and Eugene Kupjack are distinguished as the two artists who were commissioned to help craft each miniature. Constructed between 1934 and 1940, Thorne’s miniature rooms display offers viewers a God’s eye view that allows one to see how design, culture and architecture evolved from the Middle Ages to early 1940’s Americana. The fact that each interior matches exact one-inch by one-foot specifications offers unparalleled accuracy and realism. In addition, every miniature is constructed with the same materials of the depicted era. The borderline obsessive-compulsive attention to detail remains the strongest element of Thorne’s gallery. Patterns on the upholstery are hand-stitched onto the furniture and fireplaces are speckled with ash and roasting embers. If you aren’t too embarrassed to stick your face up against the glass, the three-dimensional space and naturalistic lighting make you feel like you’ve been transported out of the museum and into a different century.

Despite the apparent care it took to craft each room, Thorne’s display contains a playful quality to it. Whether this aspect is intended or not, guests can’t help but feel that they have wandered into at an over-the-top dollhouse hobby fair. This probably explains why the contemporary art gala was placed upstairs and scrutinized by adults while Thorne’s gallery was banished to the basement away from all the other artwork and ransacked by children climbing the railings and rolling around on the carpeted floor. Yet, the art gallery turned day care center/jungle gym is not entirely a bad thing. The displays appeal to a childlike sensibility as you catch yourself imagining the miniature rooms being occupied by miniature people. At the very least, Thorne’s exhibit provides a break from the stiffness of the rest of the museum. Worrying about bumping into and breaking an antique from the Byzantine Empire is nonexistent down here. Plus, you don’t have security staring straight through your soul and barking at you to not touch anything. Visitors are simply left to look at something that is just plain fun.