Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

The Lost Symphony: Whistler and the Perfection of Art

As part of Peacock Room REMIX, this related installation reconstructs how Whistler’s unrealized quest for “the perfection of art” intersected with less-rarified concerns about patronage, payment, and professional reputation.

January 16, 2016 – May 30, 2016

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Sotatsu: Making Waves

Making Waves is the first in-depth examination of this major Japanese artist. The exhibition convenes for the first time more than seventy of Sotatsu’s masterpieces from collections in Japan, Europe, and the United States, along with homage pieces by later artists that demonstrate his long-ranging influence.

October 24, 2015 – January 31, 2016

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Art of the Gift: Recent Acquisitions

Art of the Gift celebrates some of the recent and promised gifts made to the museums and archives. Objects on view range from centuries-old Buddhist sculptures from Japan, Southeast Asia, and Tibet to lacquer ware and contemporary photography from Iran.

July 25, 2015 – December 13, 2015

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Abbas Kiarostami: Five Dedicated to Ozu

From July to September 2015, the Freer|Sackler features a series of programs highlighting contemporary moving-image works from Iran. Presented as a single-screen projection, Five pays tribute to Yasujir? Ozu, the renowned Japanese filmmaker whose work has deeply influenced Kiarostami’s films.

July 3, 2015 – September 13, 2015

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Unearthing Arabia: The Archaeological Adventures of Wendell Phillips

The exhibition highlights Phillips’s key expedition finds, recreates his adventures (and misadventures), and conveys the thrill of discovery on the last great archaeological frontier.

October 11, 2014 – June 7, 2015

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Perspectives: Chiharu Shiota

Haunted by the traces that the human body leaves behind, the work amasses personal memories of lost individuals and past moments through an accumulation of discarded shoes and notes collected by the artist.

August 30, 2014 – June 7, 2015

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

The Traveler's Eye: Scenes of Asia

The exhibition provides glimpses of travels across the continent, from pilgrimages and research trips to expeditions for trade and tourism.

November 22, 2014 – May 31, 2015

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Nasta'liq: The Genius of Persian Calligraphy

More than 20 works focus on nasta'liq, a calligraphic script that developed in the 14th century in Iran and remains one of the most expressive forms of aesthetic refinement in Persian culture to this day.

September 13, 2014 – May 3, 2015

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

The Arts of China

View impressive examples of ancient jades and bronzes, as well as paintings, calligraphy, and decorative objects from the Sackler's permanent collection.

November 18, 1990 – September 7, 2014

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

An American in London: Whistler and the Thames

Rarely seen drawings, watercolors, and pastels, alongside iconic nocturnes, are featured in this first major James McNeill Whistler exhibition in the Sackler Gallery.

May 3, 2014 – August 17, 2014

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Kiyochika: Master of the Night

Kobayashi Kiochika's prints of Tokyo were unlike anything previously produced by a Japanese artist. Created primarily at dawn, dusk, and night, his prints depict subjects veiled in sharply angled light, shadows, and darkness.

March 29, 2014 – July 27, 2014

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Chigusa and the Art of Tea

Learn how one Chinese storage jar was transformed into a vessel worthy of display, adornment, and contemplation.

February 22, 2014 – July 27, 2014

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Jars

Ten utilitarian storage jars on view include variations from China, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, and Burma.

March 15, 2014 – July 27, 2014

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

In Focus: Ara Guler's Anatolia

Never-before-shown works, highlighting Turkey's cultural history, by the legendary photographer Ara Güler are on view.

December 14, 2013 – July 20, 2014

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Perspectives: Rina Banerjee

Artist Rina Banerjee's latest site-specific sculptural assemblage, A world lost, touches on themes of migration and transformation.

July 13, 2013 – June 8, 2014

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Ceramics from Thailand

Discover the variety of ceramics produced in Thailand across four millennia.

July 13, 2013 – March 13, 2014

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Yoga: The Art of Transformation

Explore how the meanings of yoga changed over time as it became a global phenomenom through more than 120 masterpieces, including 10 folios from the first illustrated compilation of asanas made for a Mughal emperor in 1602 that have never been shown in the United States.

October 19, 2013 – January 26, 2014

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Strange and Wondrous: Prints of India from the Robert J. Del Bonta Collection

An exceptional group of 50 prints show how perceptions of Indian culture shifted through the centuries, from the Enlightenment to the colonial period and into modernity.

October 19, 2013 – January 5, 2014

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Sense of Place: Landscape Photographs from Asia

See prints by Abbas Kiarostami, Lois Conner, Moriyama Daido, Seifollah Samadian, Hai Bo, and An-My Le that employ views of the landscape to convey personal and cultural contexts of meaning.

August 3, 2013 – November 11, 2013

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Nine Deaths, Two Births: Xu Bing's Phoenix Project

See how Xu Bing's Phoenix Project -- his newest sculpture on view at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) -- evolved through drawings, scale models, and construction fragments.

April 27, 2013 – September 2, 2013

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Hand-held: Gerhard Pulverer's Japanese Illustrated Books

Learn how illustrated books (ehon) in Edo-period Japan (1615-1868) were similar to blogging and e-publications in the 21st century.

April 6, 2013 – August 11, 2013

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Reinventing the Wheel: Japanese Ceramics 1930-2000

Modern and contemporary Japanese ceramics by Living National Treasures to young virtuosos are featured in this installation.

July 23, 2011 – July 12, 2013

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

One Man's Search for Ancient China: The Paul Singer Collection

Learn how new discoveries shed light on psychiatrist and scholar Paul Singer's collection of Chinese archaeological objects and on ancient life in China.

January 19, 2013 – July 7, 2013

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

The Cyrus Cylinder and Ancient Persia: A New Beginning

View the iconic Cyrus cylinder along with objects showcasing innovations of the Achaemenid Empire (550-330 BC) of Iran that had a huge impact on the ancient world.

March 9, 2013 – April 28, 2013

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Perspectives: Ai Weiwei

View the monumental installation Fragments by the prolific and provocative Chinese artist Ai Weiwei.

May 12, 2012 – April 14, 2013

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery