Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

Paintings from Shiraz

See 8 bound manuscripts and 20 paintings created during the 14th through 16th centuries in Shiraz, located in southern Iran.

December 24, 1994 – August 27, 1995

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Landscape As Culture: Photographs by Lois Conner

See how 87 platinum photographs, taken with a 100-year-old banquet camera, reveal the intersection of nature and humanity in China and South Asia.

August 14, 1994 – May 30, 1995

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

A Mughal Hunt

Learn how the process of determining the authorship of a painting is based on a comparison of stylistic elements in this exhibition of 17 Indian paintings by Payag.

March 13, 1994 – November 27, 1994

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Contemporary Porcelain from Japan

View 30 works of art made of porcelain between 1972-1992 by the members of the Ceramic Arts Division of the Issuikai.

November 21, 1993 – September 5, 1994

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Korean Arts of the 18th Century: Splendor and Simplicity

Visit a collection of 120 objects that are displayed in settings demonstrating their ceremonial, ritual, and everyday use.

February 20, 1994 – May 15, 1994

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

The Divine Word of Islam

See a Koran (the holy scripture of Islam), books of prayer, folios from dispersed volumes as well as a ceramic tombstone, dating from the 14th through the 18th century from Egypt, Iran, and Turkey.

July 4, 1993 – February 6, 1994

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Joined Colors: Decoration and Meaning in Chinese Porcelain

Visit 79 examples of 15th- and 19th-century Chinese porcelain with overglaze enamel decoration that are on loan from the Min Chiu Society, a group of Hong Kong collectors.

January 31, 1993 – November 28, 1993

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

The Golden Age of Sculpture from Sri Lanka

Observe 52 ancient masterpieces of bronze casting include Buddhist and Hindu sculpture that provide evidence of a distinct Sri Lankan aesthetic.

November 1, 1992 – September 26, 1993

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

19th-Century Photographs from Sri Lanka

See 22 photographs were taken by resident British photographers W. L. H. Skeen and Charles T. Scowen at the end of the 19th century when Sri Lanka was a British colony.

December 20, 1992 – May 9, 1993

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Art of Cambodia

View a group of 10th to 13th century Cambodian stone sculptures and a display of Hindu stone, bronze, brass, and terra-cotta sculptures from South India dating from the 8th through the 14th century.

August 25, 1990 – February 28, 1993

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

South Indian Hindu Temple Sculpture

See 7 bronze and stone sculptures from south Indian Hindu temples.

August 25, 1990 – February 28, 1993

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Arts of Mughal India

These 20 paintings and 6 objects from the late 16th to the 18th century introduce the history of India's Islamic Mughal empire.

May 24, 1992 – December 6, 1992

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Visit 250 objects in stone, clay, wood, bone, lacquer, bronze, and gold--dating from as early as 200,000 B.C. through the 7th century A.D.--that present the evolution of early Japanese culture and provide insight into the status of archeology in Japan today.

August 9, 1992 – November 1, 1992

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Nomads and Nobility: Art of the Ancient Near East

View over 100 gold, silver, other metalware, and ivory objects from the Sackler gift, including many silver vessels such as animal-shaped rhytons and silver-and-gilt pouring vessels, or ewers.

September 28, 1987 – October 26, 1992

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

When Kingship Descended from Heaven: Masterpieces of Mesopotamian Art from the Louvre

See 32 objects created between 3500 B.C. and 2230 B.C. in the kingdoms of Sumer and Akkad that explore the relationship between kingship and society.

March 8, 1992 – August 9, 1992

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

The Art of Painting a Story: Narrative Images from Iran

View 28 paintings from Persian histories, epics, romances, and mystical poems that describe Iran's imaginative illustrative traditions.

December 22, 1991 – May 10, 1992

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Challenging the Past: The Paintings of Chang Dai-chien

Examine the paradox of Chang Dai-chien (1899-1983), in his dual role as the last of China's traditional painters and the great innovator who introduced a contemporary aesthetic of abstract expressionism in this collection of 87 paintings.

November 24, 1991 – April 5, 1992

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Indian Paintings and Drawings from the Collection of Howard Hodgkin

See paintings and drawings from India's 3 major regional styles--Rajput, Deccani, and Mughal--on loan from the collection of an eminent contemporary English painter, organized into 5 common themes.

September 15, 1991 – January 12, 1992

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

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

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

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

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

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