Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

Hiroshi Sugimoto: History of History

Explore connections between past and present modes of seeing by juxtaposing contemporary photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto's photographs with approximately 60 ancient and medieval Japanese artworks.

April 1, 2006 – July 30, 2006

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Hokusai

Focus on the paintings created during a career of more than 70 years of the great Japanese artist Hokusai, whose print Great Wave Off Kanagawa is one of the most widely recognized images ever produced.

March 4, 2006 – May 14, 2006

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Perspectives: Mei-Ling Hom

Explore the meanings of clouds and the fluidity of those meanings for people who inhabit multiple cultures in this serene and contemplative installation of 30 cloud-like forms.

August 27, 2005 – March 5, 2006

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Gold: The Asian Touch

See a small, focused exhibition of 47 works that examines the meanings and uses of gold in different Asian cultures.

September 10, 2005 – February 19, 2006

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Style and Status: Imperial Costumes from Ottoman Turkey

See 68 of the world's finest and most luxurious imperial Ottoman royal textiles.

October 29, 2005 – January 22, 2006

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Chinese Mountains of Immortality: A Focused Look

See a 3-object installation that examines Chinese images of mountains by comparing a 2nd-1st century B.C. incense burner with 2 later hanging scrolls.

April 2, 2005 – September 25, 2005

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Caravan Kingdoms: Yemen and the Ancient Incense Trade

Explore how ancient Yemen grew fabulously wealthy because of the caravan trade routes of frankincense and myrrh that ran through it.

June 25, 2005 – September 11, 2005

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Chinese Pots for Tabletop Gardens: Honoring the World Bonsai Friendship Federation

See how the pot used to hold a bonsai is also important to the overall aesthetic impact in this display featureing 8 antique Chinese pots that reveal a continuum of taste from imperial opulence to restrained rusticity.

May 27, 2005 – September 5, 2005

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

In the Realm of Princes: The Arts of the Book in Fifteenth-Century Iran and Central Asia

See 33 paintings, manuscripts, and portable luxury objects from Iran and modern-day Afghanistan that illustrate one of the most artistically brilliant periods in the history of the Islamic world.

March 19, 2005 – August 7, 2005

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Perspectives: Cai Guo-Qiang: Traveler: Reflection

See how Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang explores past and present artistic expression driven by contact between cultures and peoples.

October 30, 2004 – July 31, 2005

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Iraq and China: Ceramics, Trade, and Innovation

See approximately 60 objects that focus on revolutionary and enduring changes that took place in Iraqi ceramics during the 9th century as Islamic pottery responded to a wave of luxury Chinese goods.

December 4, 2004 – July 17, 2005

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Asian Games: The Art of Contest

Explore the role of games as social and cultural activities in the diverse societies of pre-modern Asia through games, paintings, prints, and decorative art.

February 26, 2005 – May 15, 2005

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Contemporary Japanese Ceramics: Focus of Decoration

See 9 ceramic vessels (in display cases) by Japanese artists who focus on innovative approaches to decoration.

September 28, 1987 – April 24, 2005

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Asia in America: Views of Chinese Art from the Indianapolis Museum of Art

View ceramic treasures from the Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA) -- spanning more than 1,000 years of history -- that are juxtaposed with similar items from the Freer Gallery to reveal how different apparently "similar" things can be.

September 18, 2004 – March 20, 2005

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Art of Mughal India

View an exhibition of 31 works of art that traces the origins and development of a distinct Mughal pictorial style in the 16th and 17th centuries.

August 21, 2004 – February 21, 2005

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Dream Worlds: Modern Japanese Prints and Paintings from the Robert O. Muller Collection

View approximately 160 Japanese woodblock prints from the 1860s through the 1940s bequeathed to the museum by Robert O. Muller (1911-2003).

November 6, 2004 – January 2, 2005

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Caliphs and Kings: The Art and Influence of Islamic Spain

See 89 objects that illustrate themes of longevity, continuity, and transmission in the Islamic decorative arts and sciences in medieval Spain.

May 8, 2004 – October 17, 2004

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Perspectives: Do-Ho Suh: Staircase-IV

Visit a site-specific installation meticulously stitched out of a translucent red nylon fabric -- a monumental and powerfully abstract rendering of Do-Ho Suh's New York apartment staircase in 1:1 scale.

April 17, 2004 – September 26, 2004

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Return of the Buddha: The Qingzhou Discoveries

See 35 limestone sculptures from an extraordinary cache of nearly 400 sixth-century Chinese Buddhist objects that were unearthed in 1996 in Qingzhou, Shandong province, China, at what used to be the site of the Longxing Buddhist temple.

March 20, 2004 – August 8, 2004

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Faith and Form: Selected Calligraphy and Painting from the Japanese Religious Traditions

View 56 works that illustrate the intimate relationships between calligraphy, painting, and faith transmission within the Japanese Buddhist and Shinto tradition.

March 20, 2004 – July 18, 2004

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Perspectives: Yayoi Kusama

Visit 2 installation pieces by the world-class Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, a pioneer of installation and performance art with an intensely personal vision.

August 30, 2003 – March 21, 2004

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Fountains of Light: Islamic Metalwork from the Nuhad Es-Said Collection

View a group of 27 inlaid precious metal objects from the Nuhad Es-Said Collection, considered one of the finest collections of Islamic metalwork in private hands.

September 17, 2000 – February 29, 2004

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Love and Yearning: Mystical and Moral Themes in Persian Poetry and Paintings

View 26 illustrated manuscripts, detached paintings, and several textiles, dating from the 15th to 17th centuries, that highlight some of the central mystical and moral themes in Persian poetry and painting and explore the relationship between text and image.

August 30, 2003 – February 22, 2004

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Metalwork and Ceramics from Ancient Iran

See 51 metal and clay artifacts created in western Iran in the period 2300 B.C.-100 B.C. that are evidence of the manipulation of the properties of materials by the application of heat.

November 26, 1992 – February 8, 2004

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Himalayas: An Aesthetic Adventure

View 163 masterpieces from India, Nepal, and Tibet created from the 8th to 19th centuries, most of which have never been publicly exhibited in the West.

October 18, 2003 – January 11, 2004

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery