Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

Zen, Tea, and Chinese Art in Medieval Japan

In this exhibition, Chinese and Japanese paintings, lacquer ware, and ceramics illuminate this remarkable period of cultural contact and synthesis.

December 13, 2014 – June 14, 2015

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Young Whistler: Early Prints and the "French Set"

See 23 of James McNeill Whistler's most important etchings produced up to 1858, related drawings and watercolors, and some of the artist's tools.

August 28, 2004 – March 13, 2005

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Year of the Horse: Chinese Horse Paintings

Celebrate the Year of the Horse in this exhibition including 19 Chinese horse paintings and calligraphy dating from the 11th to the 20th century.

February 10, 2002 – September 2, 2002

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Writing, Carving, and Rubbing: China's Calligraphic Arts

Follow the evolution of Chinese calligraphy through six major script types in the past three millenniums.

April 4, 2009 – October 25, 2009

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Work and Commerce: Everyday Life in Chinese Painting

View Chinese paintings dating from the 12th to the 18th centuries picturing the daily activities of common people.

June 19, 2004 – January 17, 2005

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Words of Wisdom: Buddhist Calligraphy from Japan

Japan had not yet developed a written language of its own prior to the year 552, and its introduction by Korean emissaries changed the country’s history forever.

April 1, 2023 – February 25, 2024

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Wonders of Creation, Oddities of Existence: An Exhibition in Celebration of Halley's Comet

See 21 paintings, 2 pieces of metalwork, and a ceramic bowl that examine Islamic attitudes toward the cosmos from the 13th through the 18th centuries.

March 3, 1986 – October 1, 1986

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Women in Chinese Painting

Paintings in this exhibition illustrate the active and critical roles women played in traditional Chinese society.

November 9, 2013 – April 27, 2014

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Winter into Spring: American Landscapes

Visit a group of 19 American landscapes by American artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries that includes oil paintings, watercolors, and pastels by Whistler, Dewing, Thayer, Tryon, Metcalf, and Charles Adams Platt, architect of the Freer.

March 1, 1982 – May 31, 1982

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Winslow Homer: Four Views of Nature

See three technically innovative watercolors and the monumental oil painting Early Evening, painted by American artist Winslow Homer.

November 22, 2008 – May 25, 2009

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Winged Spirits: Birds in Chinese Painting

Examine birds in Chinese paintings that are rendered in such fine detail that more than 35 species can be scientifically identified.

February 11, 2012 – August 12, 2012

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Winged Figures

Honor Abbott Thayer's birth 150 years ago with three of his monumental winged-figure paintings.

June 5, 1999 – March 18, 2001

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Whistler: Streetscapes, Urban Change

Experience works by American expatriate artist James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903) in a groundbreaking exhibition that explores European cities in an era of rapid change.

November 18, 2023 – May 4, 2024

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Whistler's Nudes

View some 35 of Whistler's most beautiful pastels and lithographs featuring thinly dressed female models striking dramatic poses in his studio.

April 21, 2002 – January 5, 2003

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Whistler's Neighborhood: Impressions of a Changing London

See how the Chelsea neighborhood of London rapidly changed in the 1880s through the eyes of artist James McNeill Whistler.

September 3, 2012 – September 3, 2013

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Whistler's Greatest Etchings: The 1889 Amsterdam Set

Retrace the development of Whistler's artistry by comparing 14 rare Amsterdam impressions with major examples of the artist's earlier work as a printmaker.

June 28, 2003 – February 1, 2004

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Whistler in Watercolor

Whistler in Watercolor introduces museum visitors to the artist’s vast creative output and provides wide access to a rarely seen segment of his work.

May 18, 2019 – November 3, 2019

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Whistler in Venice: The Pastels

See 14 unusually beautiful and rare pastels that Whistler completed while in Venice between September 1879 and November 1880, capturing the varied moods of the watery city.

January 18, 2003 – June 15, 2003

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Whistler in Paris: Lithographs from the Belle Epoque, 1891-1896

See 26 of the best of Whistler's lithographs, many of which offered unexpected glimpses of this artist as a contented family man.

February 21, 2004 – August 15, 2004

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Whistler and the Thames

Visit a collection of etchings, lithographs, and litho tints, as well as an oil painting and one pastel drawing of London's Thames River by American artist James McNeill Whistler.

December 17, 2000 – June 17, 2001

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Whistler and the Leylands

See 31 works--primarily etchings and drypoints--that focus on Whistler's printmaking career under the patronage of Frederick Richards Leyland, a Liverpool ship owner.

July 3, 1998 – June 6, 1999

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Whistler and the Hadens

Trace the early years of Whistler's career through 30 etchings, drypoints, drawings, and an oil painting.

June 20, 1999 – April 30, 2000

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Whistler & Japan

View prints, drawings, and paintings created by Whistler during the 1860s and 1870s from the museum's collection.

May 14, 1995 – February 11, 1996

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Virtue and Entertainment: Chinese Music in the Visual Arts

Learn how music played an important role in ancient Chinese culture and was also richly presented in the visual arts.

October 1, 2005 – March 26, 2006

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Vietnamese Ceramics from the Red River Delta

See the first major presentation of 25 works from the Freer's Vietnamese ceramic collection.

July 9, 2005 – January 31, 2010

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery