Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

Isamu Noguchi and Modern Japanese Ceramics

Best known for his abstract stone sculpture and public plazas, Japanese American artist Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988) also produced ceramics during short sojourns to Japan in 1931, 1950, and 1952.

May 3, 2003 – September 7, 2003

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Auto*Focus: Raghubir Singh's Way into India

On view are 48 vibrant photographs of India by the preeminent photographer Raghubir Singh.

March 8, 2003 – August 10, 2003

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

After the Madness: The Secular Life, Art and Imitation of Bada Shanren (1626-1705)

Visit 15 works created by the artist, together with 4 later forgeries, and 2 paintings by 20th-century followers. Issues of connoisseurship, copying, and fakery are discussed.

February 15, 2003 – July 27, 2003

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

The World at Our Feet: A Selection of Carpets from the Corcoran Gallery of Art

The World at Our Feet showcases 6 of the finest examples of Persian, Indian, and Turkish carpets from the Corcoran Gallery of Art's collection.

April 5, 2003 – July 6, 2003

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

The Sensuous and the Sacred: Chola Bronzes from South India

See the Freer Gallery's famous Sembiyan Mahadevi as goddess Parvati along with 70 other bronzes drawn from important public and private collections in the United States and Europe.

November 10, 2002 – March 9, 2003

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Masterful Illusions: Japanese Prints from the Anne van Biema Collection

See 138 Japanese woodblock prints from the collection of Anne van Biema that include prints of Kabuki actors in the thriving cities of Edo and Osaka.

September 15, 2002 – January 19, 2003

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Sacred Sites: Silk Road Photographs by Kenro Izu

See 27 of Japanese-born, New York photographer Kenro Izu's large-format platinum prints of sacred sites set along the historic silk trading road.

June 9, 2002 – January 5, 2003

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

The Adventures of Hamza

View approximately 60 illustrations from a manuscript of the Hamzanama (or The Adventures of Hamza) that was made in India for the Mughal Emperor Akbar when he was still a teenager.

June 26, 2002 – September 29, 2002

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Hamadryad: Meditation as Sculpture

Visit Okura Jira's series of three wood sculptures that unite his ideas about nature, form, process, and spirit.

April 14, 2002 – September 15, 2002

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Kutani-style Porcelain from the Collection of Gallaudet University

View a selection of Kutani-style porcelain objects by deaf artist Mitsui Eiichi, including sake cups, an incense container, and tea bowls with jewel-like designs of birds, flowers, and geometric patterns.

June 30, 2002 – August 11, 2002

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Word Play: Contemporary Art by Xu Bing

View Chinese artist Xu Bing's seminal, best-known piece A Book from the Sky (Tianshu), along with books, scrolls, and wall posters all using 2,000 unreadable imitation "Chinese characters" that were invented by the artist to express humankind's struggle with communication.

October 21, 2001 – May 12, 2002

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Visual Poetry: Paintings and Drawings from Iran

See 32 works by celebrated painter Riza Abbasi and other notable artists active in 16th- and 17th-century Iran.

December 16, 2001 – May 5, 2002

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Khmer Ceramics

View 9 vessels from a recent gift of 80 rare ceramics from the 9th to 14th centuries of the Khmer empire.

April 5, 1997 – March 26, 2002

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Devi

See a 9-foot tall statue of Devi--whose name means goddess--by Indian artist Ravinder Reddy (b. 1956).

November 4, 2001 – March 17, 2002

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Healing Mandala in Washington, D.C.

Over two weeks, approximately 20 Tibetan monks will create a 7' x 7' sand mandala as a healing response to the events of Sept. 11, 2001.

January 11, 2002 – January 27, 2002

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Honoring Friends: Recent Gifts by Members of the Freer and Sackler Galleries

See 20 objects that reflect the enormous scope of the Freer Gallery of Art's and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery's Asian art collections.

June 10, 2001 – November 25, 2001

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Contemporary Art from India

Juxtaposing modern with folk and tribal art, see five bold contemporary canvases by Indian artists and three large terra-cotta figures--a warrior, a horse, and a bull--sculpted by village craftsmen.

February 14, 2001 – October 24, 2001

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Worshiping the Ancestors: Chinese Commemorative Portraits

View 38 nearly life-sized, brightly colored portraits of members of the Qing dynasty imperial family and the social elite that range in date from 1451 to 1943.

June 17, 2001 – September 9, 2001

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Changing Taste: Indian Paintings of the 18th to the 20th Century

Visit a selection of recently acquired works on paper and cloth created during a phase when traditional art overlapped with the golden age of photography.

December 17, 2000 – July 15, 2001

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Persepolis: Documenting an Ancient Iranian Capital, 1923-1935

Witness the visual record of Ernst E. Herzfeld (1879-1948) and the team of architects who excavated Persepolis, one of the ancient capital cities of the Achaemenid Persian Empire (ca. 550-330 B.C.), between 1923-1935.

December 3, 2000 – May 6, 2001

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Asian Traditions in Clay: The Hauge Gifts

See approximately 75 vessels chosen from 3 groups of Asian ceramics given by Osborne and Gratia Hauge and Victor and Takako Hauge between 1996 and 1998.

October 29, 2000 – April 22, 2001

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

India through the Lens: Photography 1840-1911

Travel the Indian subcontinent presented in 134 photographs shot between 1840 and 1911 during the golden age of early photography.

December 3, 2000 – March 25, 2001

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

The Dr. Paul Singer Collection of Chinese Art of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

Visit 18 objects - sculpture, wine containers, burial jars - that constitute a tiny fraction of the more than 5,000 objects included in the collection of Dr. Paul Singer.

August 31, 1999 – January 16, 2001

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

A Well-Watched War: Images from the Russo-Japanese Front, 1904-1905

View a selection of 29 woodblock prints, most in triptych format, that survey the application of this medium to reportage of Japan's war with Imperial Russia.

June 11, 2000 – November 26, 2000

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

The Heroic Past: The Persian Book of Kings

Visit the historical figures who were made legendary in the Persian epic the Shahnama (The King's Book of Kings) composed in 1010 by the poet Firdawsi.

June 4, 2000 – October 29, 2000

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery