After the First World War, dozens of new nation states—among them, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Ukraine, Turkey, and Egypt—emerged on the world map. Though politics shaped the lines between them, it was artists who would define each country’s cultural output. In 1919, Arthur Griffith, a poet writing from Gloucester Prison, encouraged his colleagues to “mobilize the poets,” to fight for independence. The large-scale exhibition “Self-Determination,” one of the most important in the museum’s history, explores the role of art and artists in the expression of national identities. —Elena Clavarino