Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

H. H. Richardson and His Office

Acknowledge the work and staff of Henry Hobson Richardson, America's greatest Victorian architect, through more than 250 drawings and photographs.

March 21, 1975 – June 22, 1975

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Persian and Indian Paintings: Selections from a Recent Acquisition (The Vever Collection)

See 15 examples of painting and calligraphy from the Vever collection that offer a sampling of the collection of nearly 500 Islamic paintings and manuscripts that disappeared in the 1940s and remained unaccounted for until it was purchased by the museum.

September 28, 1987 – February 29, 1988

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

The Chinese Scholar's Studio: Artistic Life in the Late Ming Period

View 150 paintings, jades, lacquers, ceramics, musical instruments, and books dating from the neolithic period to the 17th century.

May 1, 1988 – June 26, 1988

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Pavilions and Immortal Mountains: Chinese Decorative Art and Painting

See over 200 jades, painting, lacquerware, and furniture from the Sackler gift, including Chinese paintings in three formats--hanging scrolls, handscrolls and album leaves--, and 16 articles of Chinese furniture from the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties.

September 28, 1987 – August 31, 1988

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

In Praise of Ancestors: Ritual Objects from China

View bronzes and neolithic jade from the Sackler gift, including 2 bronze vessels showing how naturalistic forms could be adapted to abstract interpretations; a dramatic graduated set of 6 bronze bells; and a silk manuscript, which is one of the most famous early Chinese documents known.

September 28, 1987 – January 2, 1989

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Art of India: Painting and Decorative Objects

See 15 examples of art from India, including sculpture, painting, drawing, a gold coin and 2 decorative boxes exploring the stylistic and thematic directions in 13th- through 19th-century art in India.

July 30, 1988 – April 16, 1989

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

A Jeweler's Eye: Islamic Arts of the Book from the Vever Collection

View 160 Persian and Indian paintings, manuscripts, calligraphies, and bookbindings, that offer a comprehensive survey of the art of the Islamic book from the 11th to the 19th centuries.

November 20, 1988 – April 30, 1989

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Timur and the Princely Vision: Persian Art and Culture in the Fifteenth Century

View some 160 artifacts and artworks that present the cultural achievements of Timur or Tamerlane, the Asian emperor whose military conquests reshaped the social, political, and cultural climate of large parts of Iran and Central Asia during the 15th century.

April 16, 1989 – July 6, 1989

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Yani: The Brush of Innocence

See 69 paintings by young Chinese artist Wang Yani, who began painting at age 2, along with a small group of historical Chinese paintings that illustrate the artistic tradition from which her work emerges.

June 25, 1989 – October 22, 1989

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Photographs of Afghanistan by Luke Powell

See 17 color photographs of the land, the people, and the architecture of the land-locked, war-torn Asian nation, taken between 1974 and 1978 by artist, traveler, and amateur archaeologist Luke Powell.

April 30, 1989 – October 31, 1989

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Words in Remembrance

View Asian poetry, written between the 1st and 12th centuries on the themes of life, death, and friends who have died, illustrated by Asian calligraphers in the Washington, D.C. area.

December 1, 1989 – December 31, 1989

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Recent Acquisitions: Japanese Art

See 2 recent acquisitions of Japanese art made by the Sackler Gallery: a gold-and-black lacquer ceremonial palanquin, and a pair of 17th-century 6-panel folding screens.

October 8, 1988 – January 1, 1990

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

India Along the Ganges: Photographs by Raghubir Singh

Celebrate life on India's sacred river, from its source in the Himalayas to its delta at the Bay of Bengal in this exhibition of 50 dye-transfer images.

November 23, 1989 – April 15, 1990

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Temple Sculpture of South and Southeast Asia

View 8 sculptures in bronze, schist, and granite from India, Indonesia, Cambodia, and present day Pakistan dating from the 3rd to the 14th centuries.

September 28, 1987 – August 20, 1990

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Chinese Buddhist and Daoist Imagery

See 10 sculptures in gilt, bronze, stone, and jade dating from the 2nd to the 11th centuries.

September 28, 1987 – August 20, 1990

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Yokohama: Prints from 19th-Century Japan

Enjoy 80 woodblock prints that focus on the manners and customs of the foreign residents of the port city of Yokohama.

May 27, 1990 – September 9, 1990

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Ancient Chinese Jades and Bronzes

See Chinese bronze, jade, and turquoise pieces from the Shang and Zhou dynasties in the permanent collection.

October 1, 1989 – September 9, 1990

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Variations on a Script (Islamic Calligraphy from the Vever Collection)

View 21 examples of Islamic calligraphy from the Vever Collection.

February 18, 1990 – September 16, 1990

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

The Noble Path: Buddhist Art of South Asia and Tibet

Follow the evolution of Buddhism in South Asia and Tibet through some 100 objects on loan from the Los Angeles County Art Museum.

October 1, 1989 – September 30, 1990

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Paper and Clay from Modern Japan

Visit 16 works on paper and 11 ceramic objects by well-known 20th-century Japanese artists on exhibit for the first time.

January 20, 1991 – March 17, 1991

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Terra Cottas from South India

Visit 11 large terra cotta figures representing Hindu deities and animals, made by potters of South India during the Aditi exhibiton, held at the Smithsonian in 1985 during the "Festival of India."

May 21, 1988 – March 17, 1991

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Antoin Sevruguin: Photographs of Iran

View photographs by Antoin Sevruguin, who worked in Iran from the 1880s to the 1920s.

September 30, 1990 – May 27, 1991

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Chinese Lacquered Furniture

Visit 4 examples of Chinese lacquered furniture from the 15th to the 18th century.

October 14, 1990 – July 14, 1991

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Court Arts of Indonesia

See more than 150 works from the 8th to the 20th century reflect the traditions of the royal court of Indonesia.

May 19, 1991 – September 2, 1991

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Crushed Lapis and Burnished Gold: The Art of Illumination

View approximately 30 manuscripts, individual folios, and book covers from the Henri Vever Collection of Islamic arts of the Koran, along with examples of the illuminator's tools and materials.

June 9, 1991 – December 8, 1991

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery