Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

The Potter's Mark: Identity and Tea Ceramics

View Japanese ceramics that were among the first in Asia to display impressed or incised marks relating to their makers.

August 18, 2007 – February 24, 2008

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Japanese Arts of the Edo Period, 1615-1868

Visit the first of two exhibitions featuring paintings, lacquer, and ceramics of the Edo period from the Freer Gallery's extensive permanent collection.

August 18, 2007 – February 24, 2008

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

James McNeill Whistler

View 10 oil paintings that show the major developments in Whistler's style from the late 1850s until the 1890s.

April 22, 2001 – January 21, 2008

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Art for Art's Sake

Take in 31 works by Whistler, Tryon, Dewing, Thayer, and ceramicist Mary Chase Perry Stratton.

August 7, 1997 – January 21, 2008

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Tales of the Brush: Literary Masterpieces in Chinese Painting

See an exhibition featuring Chinese artists -- as early as the first century to the present day -- who have turned to literature for inspiration for their paintings, works on silk and paper, and other objects.

July 28, 2007 – January 13, 2008

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Parades: Freer Ceramics Installed by Gwyn Hanssen Pigott

View 7 still-life groupings of bowls, bottles, and cups assembled by Australian ceramic artist Gwyn Hanssen Pigott.

November 4, 2006 – January 8, 2008

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Landscapes in Japanese Art

Explore the landscapes created by Japanese artists from the 15th through the 19th centuries in this exhibition of 20 paintings and 12 ceramics.

February 3, 2007 – July 15, 2007

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Tea Bowls in Bloom: Botanical Decorations on Tea Ceremony Ceramics

See how decorated tea bowls and water jars can skillfully show how a limited palette can evoke the full spectrum of nature's hues.

February 3, 2007 – July 15, 2007

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Daoism in the Arts of China

Consider the four aspects of Daoism in this exhibition and the influence of folklore, Confucianism, and Buddhism on Daoism.

December 16, 2006 – July 1, 2007

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Luxury Arts of the Silk Route Empires

Follow the ancient Silk Route, an exchange network linking the continent of Asia two thousand years before today's global economy.

May 9, 1993 – January 28, 2007

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Freer and Tea: Raku, Hagi, Karatsu

This exhibition showcases 14 tea ceremony ceramics that Freer collected by 1906.

July 1, 2006 – January 1, 2007

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Freer: A Taste of Japanese Art

See a selection of 31 paintings, calligraphy, wood sculpture, lacquer, and ceramics from the 8th-19th centuries from Freer's Japanese art collection.

July 1, 2006 – January 1, 2007

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Beyond Brushwork: Symbolism in Chinese Painting

Take a look at the contemporary approach of examining the objects within Chinese paintings for their symbolic meanings, such as longevity and good fortune, and for their social and political commentary.

April 29, 2006 – November 26, 2006

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Pretty Women: Freer and the Ideal of Feminine Beauty

See major works that Freer acquired of beautiful women by James McNeill Whistler, Thomas Wilmer Dewing, and Abbott Handerson Thayer.

August 13, 2005 – September 17, 2006

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Freer and Tea: 100 Years of "The Book of Tea"

Explore the connections between Freer and the Japanese art historian and curator Okakura Kakuzo in this collection of tea ceremony ceramics.

November 19, 2005 – May 29, 2006

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Artists of Edo (1800-1850)

Visit approximately 30 paintings and prints representing the distinctive styles of early 19th-century artists active in the large metropolis of Edo.

November 19, 2005 – May 29, 2006

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

Games, Contests and Artful Play in Japan

Visit this exhibition and a concurrent installation of screens in a neighboring gallery that present paintings and objects from the 14th to 20th centuries illustrating a variety of Japanese games and contests.

March 19, 2005 – October 23, 2005

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Rusticity Refined: Kyoto Ceramics by Ninsei

See a small exhibition of 13 objects that compares objects by the famed Kyoto potter Nonomura Ninsei that embody the new asethetic form of porcelains with prototypes of the Momoyama period.

March 19, 2005 – October 23, 2005

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Boating on a River

Survey the role of boats in later Chinese painting history in works of Chinese painting and calligraphy spanning the 12th to the 20th centuries.

February 12, 2005 – August 21, 2005

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Luxury and Luminosity: Visual Culture and the Ming Court

See 48 objects, of which 35 are imperially commissioned, cobalt-decorated porcelains from the Ming dynasty (1368-1644).

July 3, 2004 – June 26, 2005

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

Life and Leisure: Everyday Life in Japanese Painting

See paintings and ceramics that provide insight into customs, occupations, and leisure pastimes in urban and rural settings during the last phase of warrior rule by shoguns and samurai activities in Japan during the Edo period (1615-1868).

August 14, 2004 – February 20, 2005

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

The Tea Ceremony as Melting Pot

See 17 objects featuring an eclectic variety of Chinese, Southeast Asian, Korean, and Japanese jars, bowls, cups, dishes, boxes, and a water holder -- exotic foreign ceramics that became so integrated into the tea ceremony that their provenance was forgotten and they were considered to be Japanese.

January 31, 2004 – February 20, 2005

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