Past Exhibitions

Visionary: The Cumming Family Collection

The exhibition features commissioned portraits of internationally recognized subjects by prominent American artists such as Chuck Close, Robert McCurdy, and Nelson Shanks.

September 18, 2020 – November 22, 2020

Picturing the American Buffalo: George Catlin and Modern Native American Artists

Picturing the American Buffalo: George Catlin and Modern Native American Artists considers the representation of the American buffalo from two perspectives: a selection of paintings by George Catlin (1796–1872), and works by modern Native artists.

October 11, 2019 – November 22, 2020

Still Life with Spirit and Xitle

Still Life with Spirit and Xitle features a car being crushed by a volcanic boulder with a comical smiley face painted on it by artist Jimmie Durham.

August 6, 2016 – November 6, 2020

Lee Ufan: Open Dimension

The expansive installation, featuring 10 new sculptures from the artist’s signature and continuing Relatum series, marks Lee Ufan’s largest single outdoor sculpture project in the U.S.

September 27, 2019 – October 18, 2020

Chiura Obata: American Modern

Chiura Obata presents the most comprehensive survey of the artist's rich and varied body of work to date with more than 150 paintings and personal effects, many of which are on public display for the first time.

November 27, 2019 – March 13, 2020

John Singer Sargent: Portraits in Charcoal

A once-in-a-lifetime assemblage of forty-five master drawings, many of them rarely exhibited and in private collections.

February 28, 2020 – March 13, 2020

Direct Carving

Spontaneous! Truthful! Liberating! Direct carvers often used such words to describe their unconventional method of sculpting, in which an artist works directly on a piece of stone or wood as opposed to with a model, cast, or preconceived design.

February 5, 2015 – March 13, 2020

One Life: Marian Anderson

This exhibition examines the ways in which artists, concert promoters, and others wielded Marian Anderson's iconic likeness as a powerful symbol in the pursuit of civil rights.

June 28, 2019 – March 13, 2020

Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists

Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists, organized by the Minneapolis Institute of Art, is the first major thematic exhibition to explore the artistic achievements of Native women.

February 21, 2020 – March 13, 2020

Renwick Gallery

Pat Steir: Color Wheel

The Hirshhorn hosts the largest site-specific exhibition to date by the acclaimed abstract painter Pat Steir.

October 24, 2019 – March 13, 2020

Nature by Design: Bathing Beautiful

Nature appears throughout Cooper Hewitt’s collection of wallcoverings, which includes designs for the bathroom that beautified the appearance of this everyday domestic space.

June 8, 2019 – March 13, 2020

The Outwin 2019: American Portraiture Today

Jurors select for exhibition the finest works that showcase mastery and innovation in the form.

October 26, 2019 – March 13, 2020

Nature by Design: After Icebergs

After Icebergs presents a selection of sketches and studies made by Church that document his first-hand impressions of these majestic forms of floating ice.

November 16, 2019 – March 13, 2020

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Hokusai: Mad about Painting

In commemoration of the centennial of Freer’s death in 1919, and in celebration of the Summer Olympics in Tokyo in 2020, the Freer Gallery presents an exploration of the prolific career of Katsushika Hokusai.

November 23, 2019 – March 13, 2020

Manifesto: Art x Agency

German artist Julian Rosefeldt’s epic, multi-channel video work Manifesto serves as the centerpiece to a display of works from the Hirshhorn collection highlighting works of art created in response to, or as a part of, artistic manifestos of the past 100 years.

June 15, 2019 – March 13, 2020

Portraits of the World: Denmark

Portraits of the World: Denmark is the third in a series of exhibitions that will highlight the global context of American portraiture.

December 13, 2019 – March 13, 2020

What Absence Is Made Of

The exhibition explores the compelling and enigmatic ways in which artists use absence—the loss of body, of physical form or of memory—as a form of artistic expression for more than 70 years.

October 19, 2017 – March 13, 2020

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Artists at Work

This juried exhibition, the Smithsonian Community Committee’s staff art show, underscores the often hidden talents within the Smithsonian community.

October 7, 2019 – March 13, 2020

Ripley Center

Sacred Dedication: A Korean Buddhist Masterpiece

This small focus exhibition features a 13th-century Goryeo-dynasty Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara and the dedication materials found within it. On loan from the National Museum of Korea.

September 21, 2019 – March 13, 2020

Gods, Companions, and Devotees

Hinduism is a living religion with complex roots reaching back more than four thousand years. Its three major deities—the gods Shiva and Vishnu and the goddess with multiple names—each take on many forms.

May 23, 2017 – March 13, 2020

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Recent Acquisitions

The annual exhibition Recent Acquisitions showcases 25 portraits to recently enter the Portrait Gallery’s renowned collection.

November 15, 2019 – March 13, 2020

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Age Old Cities: A Virtual Journey from Palmyra to Mosul

This exhibition immerses visitors in the history and splendor of three Arab World cities which are major centers of world heritage—Mosul, Aleppo, and Palmyra.

January 25, 2020 – March 13, 2020

Herbert Bayer: Bauhaus Master

Coinciding with the centenary of the founding of the Bauhaus in Weimar, Germany, this exhibition presents rare works by the groundbreaking graphic designer Herbert Bayer (1900–1985).

November 16, 2019 – March 13, 2020

Wyss Institute Selects

Wyss Institute Selects is the 18th installment in the exhibition series that invites designers, artists, architects and public figures to examine and interpret the museum’s collection.

July 12, 2019 – March 13, 2020