Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

The Seven Thrones of Jami: A Princely Manuscript from Iran

See 28 illustrations from the Persian mystical poem Haft Awrang (Seven Thrones)

June 28, 1997 – March 29, 1998

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Chinese Gardens in the Painter's Imagination

Visit 25 paintings, dating from the 12th to the 19th centuries, that show real and imaginary Chinese gardens.

February 1, 1997 – January 16, 1998

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Telling Tales in Japanese Art

See 22 paintings on hand scrolls, albums, screens, doors, and fans, dating from the 13th to early 20th centuries, that highlight Japanese visual narration.

November 23, 1996 – August 14, 1997

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Choice Spirits: Works by Thomas Dewing and Dwight Tryon

See 33 paintings, drawings, and screens that illustrate the nature of aestheticism in the United States at the turn of the century.

March 9, 1996 – July 7, 1997

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Beyond Paper: Chinese Calligraphy on Objects

View 36 objects, ranging from the 7th to 19th centuries, that focus on the varied uses of calligraphy on utilitarian and decorative works made of clay, lacquer, metal, jade, bamboo, silk, wood, and bone.

February 28, 1996 – July 1, 1997

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Crosscurrents in Chinese and Islamic Ceramics

View 23 objects from the 14th and 15th centuries that explore the interaction between Chinese ceramics and Islamic decorative arts.

March 1, 1996 – July 1, 1997

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Armenian Gospels

View illustrations from medieval Armenian illuminated gospels purchased by gallery founder Charles Lang Freer.

August 31, 1996 – May 1, 1997

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Islamic Art

See 15 works of Islamic art from the 9th to 15th centuries.

August 31, 1996 – May 1, 1997

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

The Natural World in Indian Painting

View 14 works on paper from India's Mughal dynasty and Rajput courts that show contrasting use of nature in Islamic and Hindu art in the 15th to 19th centuries.

August 31, 1996 – May 1, 1997

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

In Human Form: Images of the Secular and Divine in Chinese Painting

See 25 paintings from the 11th to 18th centuries that examine the ways actual and symbolic images of people influenced Chinese painting.

February 8, 1996 – January 5, 1997

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

The Life of a Japanese Painting

Understand different approaches to conserving and remounting Japanese paintings and the characteristics of Japanese painting formats and mounting styles in this exhibition.

December 17, 1995 – October 8, 1996

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Female Imagery in Indian Painting

Explore 17 paintings from albums produced between the 15th and 19th centuries for Hindu and Islamic courts in India that focus on various aspects of women.

February 10, 1996 – August 4, 1996

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

On the River

See 27 scrolls, album leaves, and fans that illustrate everyday life along China's waterways during the 13th-19th centuries.

April 1, 1995 – January 21, 1996

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Beyond Paper: Chinese Calligraphy on Objects

Appreciate the varied uses of calligraphy on 36 utilitarian and decorative works, spanning the 7th to the early 19th centuries.

August 27, 1994 – April 21, 1995

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Masterpieces of Chinese Calligraphy

See 27 works from the permanent collection by more than 30 calligraphers, from the mid-first century B.C. to the 20th century.

June 11, 1994 – February 19, 1995

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Chinese Bird-and-Flower Painting

See 21 paintings from the 12th through 18th centuries that explore the bird-and-flower genre of traditional Chinese painting.

October 1, 1993 – May 30, 1994

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

America Meets Asia at the Freer Gallery of Art

This changing exhibition of Asian and 19th/20th-century American art from the permanent collection reflects Mr. Freer's conviction that the Asian art he selected was harmonious with his American collection.

May 9, 1993 – April 30, 1994

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Paintings by Thomas Wilmer Dewing

Appreciate 19 paintings by Thomas Wilmer Dewing, an American artist best known for his graceful representations of women.

April 1, 1986 – September 5, 1988

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

American Painting

See 17 paintings by Whistler, Tryon, Dewing, and Sargent.

November 3, 1986 – September 5, 1988

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Near Eastern Art

See paintings and objects in silver, wood, ivory, jade, brass, steel, ceramic, and glass from North Africa, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Iran, India, and Turkey.

November 15, 1986 – September 5, 1988

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Chinese Art

See 12 of the Freer's finest paintings, including the 12th-century handscroll Wind and Snow in the Fir-Pine by Li Shan. Also on view is a selection of ceramics, bronzes, and lacquerware.

March 15, 1987 – September 5, 1988

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

South and Southeast Asian Art

View 11 sculptures in stone and bronze and 5 paintings representing Buddhist and Hindu gods.

November 1, 1986 – September 5, 1988

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Landscapes and Famous Places

See a dozen Japanese screens, made between the 17th and 19th centuries, that depict landscapes and places in Japan that are well-known for their scenic, literary, religious, or historical significance.

February 1, 1986 – November 30, 1987

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Arrangement in Yellow and Gold

Admire 57 oil paintings by James McNeill Whistler; and the sunny yellow of the gallery walls that re-creates the ambience of Whistler's own openings.

July 1, 1986 – March 15, 1987

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery