Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

"A Cloth of Honor" by Okon Akpan Abuje

View a shrine cloth (12 ft. high, 5 ft. wide) featuring an applique panel depicting the deceased, his wife, and his daughter.

February 6, 1991 – May 5, 1991

African Art Museum

"Here, Look at Mine!" - John N. Robinson and Larry Francis Lebby Art Show

John Robinson, a painter, and Larry Francis Lebby, a stone lithographer, come from different generations and geographies. Yet, vital themes of family, neighbors, and the natural environment link the artists.

November 14, 1982 – February 28, 1983

Anacostia Community Museum

"Horse" by Deborah Butterfield

See Deborah Butterfield's sculpture Horse, a work in wire and steel.

December 1, 1985 – April 30, 1986

Hirshhorn Museum

"In Pursuit Of..." (the Washington Print Club 9th Biennial Members' Exhibition)

Follow 61 prints that all deal with pursuit...of fish, money, women, or ideals.

September 3, 1982 – October 31, 1982

American Art Museum

"Now I Lay Me Down to Eat" A Salute to the Unknown Art of Living

See hundreds of objects--furniture, household articles, paintings, drawings and prints, and contemporary products--in an exhibition which examines, in a lively way, eating, sleeping, cleansing, bathing, and sitting.

November 18, 1980 – February 22, 1981

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

"Out of Many, One" by Jorge Rodriquez-Gerada

Rodríguez-Gerada will use several images of people photographed in Washington, D.C., to create a composite portrait that will not only be an interactive walk-through experience for visitors but will also be viewable from the newly reopened Washington Monument and from space.

October 1, 2014 – October 31, 2014

Portrait Gallery

"Pink Gesture" (Glass Vessel)

Admire collaborating artists Margie Jervis and Susie Krasnican's fused successive layers of colored enamel on their sculptural glass vessel, enhancing the medium's ability to reflect color and light.

March 5, 1982 – April 25, 1982

Renwick Gallery

"Pop" Hart Prints

Hart's prints portray the ordinary people he met in a live 'on the road' from his Illinois birthplace to Tahiti.

September 1, 1972 – February 28, 1973

American History Museum

"Save the Whale" Children's Art

Paintings by school children in the U.S. and abroad center on the theme of the threatened extinction of the whale.

May 2, 1974 – June 30, 1974

Natural History Museum

"The Eight" and the Independent Tradition in American Art

Celebrate the 75th anniversary of the legendary Eight exhibition, America's first organized assault on academic art.

January 13, 1983 – March 15, 1983

Hirshhorn Museum

"The Family 1976": Richard Avedon's Portraits for Rolling Stone

These 69 photographs from 1976 show some of the most powerful individuals during the bicentennial year.

January 22, 1993 – June 6, 1993

Portrait Gallery

"William Rush's Model" by Thomas Eakins

This newly acquired painting was executed in 1908 by Eakins, who based his work almost entirely on the study of the nude form.

March 1, 1986 – May 30, 1986

American Art Museum

(re) Framing Conversations: Photographs by Richard Avedon, 1946-1965

Twenty Richard Avedon images spanning two decades, curated from the Smithsonian’s photo history collection, are on display.

December 9, 2022 – February 2, 2025

American History Museum

...and there was light: Studies by Abraham Rattner for the stained-glass window, Chicago Loop Synagogue

Trace the development of the monumental 30-foot-high, 40-foot-wide window for the sanctuary of the synagogue through 52 works--ranging from preliminary sketches to large-scale, full-color studies.

January 23, 1976 – March 28, 1976

American Art Museum

14 Canadians: A Critic's Choice

Visit an exhibition of 42 recent works by 13 painters and one sculptor that is being held in conjunction with a Symposium on 20th century Canadian culture.

February 3, 1977 – April 10, 1977

Hirshhorn Museum

150th Commemoration of the Civil War: The Death of Ellsworth

The National Portrait Gallery marks the 150th anniversary of the Civil War through a series of four alcove exhibitions. The first of these exhibitions recounts the death of Colonel Elmer E. Ellsworth, a friend of President Lincoln, in Alexandria, Virginia.

April 29, 2011 – March 18, 2012

Portrait Gallery

1812: A Nation Emerges

Learn about key people who influenced the outcome of the War of 1812, which transformed and unified the United States.

June 15, 2012 – January 27, 2013

Portrait Gallery

1846: Portrait of the Nation

To commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Smithsonian, this exhibition looks back at the America of 1846.

April 12, 1996 – August 18, 1996

Portrait Gallery

1876: American Art of the Centennial

The majority of the 25 paintings and 5 pieces of sculpture in this exhibition were shown in the American gallery at the Philadelphia Centennial of 1876.

May 28, 1976 – November 28, 1976

American Art Museum

1898: U.S. Imperial Visions and Revisions

The first exhibition to examine this pivotal period during the Spanish-American-Cuban-Philippine War through the lens of portraiture and visual culture.

April 28, 2023 – February 25, 2024

Portrait Gallery

18th-Century Scenic and Architectural Design

See 70 drawings and engravings of theater and stage design by the Galli Bibiena family from the National Collection of Portugal.

September 25, 1990 – December 30, 1990

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

1934: A New Deal for Artists

See 56 paintings created by artists from across the United States working under the Public Works of Art Program, a federal New Deal program that lasted only six months from mid-December 1933 to June 1934.

February 27, 2009 – January 3, 2010

American Art Museum