Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

Sales Exhibition: Special Delivery: Craft America

View and shop for multi-media functional ware including jewelry, glass ornaments, vases, perfume bottles, and ceramics in the Museum Shop.

November 8, 1991 – April 14, 1992

Renwick Gallery

Albert Paley: Sculptural Adornment

Admire 52 unconventional pins, brooches, and neckpieces, many of which are complex in design as body ornaments, fabricated from gold, copper, silver, and gemstones.

November 22, 1991 – April 5, 1992

Renwick Gallery

Improvisation in African-American Quiltmaking

View 24 contemporary quilts and 4 African textiles in this exhibition of highly individual works with strong aesthetic ties to textiles of West Africa.

September 27, 1991 – January 5, 1992

Renwick Gallery

Sales Exhibition: Vanity Fair

Admire jewelry boxes, ties, scarves, kimonos, and other personal apparel items for sale in the Museum Shop.

August 16, 1991 – November 3, 1991

Renwick Gallery

Glassworks, Part II

See glass objects that range from architectonic structures and stained glass to figurative sculpture, in works by William Morris and Ginny Ruffner.

November 9, 1990 – September 15, 1991

Renwick Gallery

Lenore Tawney: A Retrospective

Celebrate 111 works by a noted pioneer fiber-artist who freed textiles from the loom, including architecturally scaled "clouds" of thousands of threads suspended from canvas supports.

April 12, 1991 – July 21, 1991

Renwick Gallery

Glassworks, Part I

Visit glass objects that range from architectonic structures and stained glass to figurative sculpture, by 5 different glass artists.

November 9, 1990 – February 3, 1991

Renwick Gallery

Featured Object: Garden Pin

Marvel at the playfully shaped silver and enamel elements that make up a storybook garden diorama in this pin, by one of America's most important studio jewelers.

January 1, 1991 – January 28, 1991

Renwick Gallery

Four Contemporary Calligraphers

View 22 English, Chinese, Arabic, and Hebrew manuscripts created by 4 contemporary calligraphers.

May 4, 1990 – January 1, 1991

Renwick Gallery

Structure and Surface: Beads in Contemporary American Art

Enjoy 44 necklaces, sculptures, collages, adornments, and tableaux made of beads by 12 artists.

July 27, 1990 – November 25, 1990

Renwick Gallery

Sensational Statements: Artware

View accessories for men and women.

July 20, 1990 – October 7, 1990

Renwick Gallery

Renwick Featured Object

Admire striking walnut library ladder by Daniel Jackson.

August 1, 1990 – September 30, 1990

Renwick Gallery

New American Furniture

View American furniture created by 25 contemporary American studio-furniture makers.

April 20, 1990 – September 3, 1990

Renwick Gallery

Sales Exhibition: Tree to Treen: Wooden Work

View boxes, bowls, chairs, and kitchen utensils by 15 artists.

April 13, 1990 – July 15, 1990

Renwick Gallery

George Ohr: Modern Potter (1857-1918)

Enjoy approximately 75 examples of eccentric pottery.

February 9, 1990 – June 3, 1990

Renwick Gallery

Sales Exhibition: Glass: Reflections Today

Admire and purchase contemporary and traditional glass goblets, vases, plates, and perfume bottles by 16 artists in the Museum Store.

November 10, 1989 – March 8, 1990

Renwick Gallery

Masterworks of Louis Comfort Tiffany

View 62 of Tiffany's finest works, including paintings; stained-glass windows; lead-glass lamps, chandeliers, and lanterns; mosaic wall decorations; art glass cases; enamelware; ceramics; and jewelry.

September 29, 1989 – March 4, 1990

Renwick Gallery

Slave Quilts from the Ante-bellum South

View approximately 30 quilts made before 1865 and 5 related pieces of furniture by African Americans of the Old South.

October 6, 1989 – January 1, 1990

Renwick Gallery

Sales Exhibition: Native American Crafts of North and South Dakota

See jewelry, sculpture, beadwork, and headdresses.

September 29, 1989 – November 5, 1989

Renwick Gallery

Sales Exhibition: Designs for Dining

Admire and purchase crafts designed for the kitchen and dining room, including wooden bowls, baskets, and utensils; goblets; metalwork of iron and brass, ceramics; placements; and table runners.

May 5, 1989 – August 13, 1989

Renwick Gallery

American Art Pottery, 1880-1930, from the Copper-Hewitt Museum

Enjoy art pottery represented by 75 major examples of historical and authentic development around the turn of the century from the Goodman collection of the Cooper-Hewitt.

March 25, 1988 – August 6, 1989

Renwick Gallery

The Boat Show: Fantastic Vessels, Fictional Voyages

See 18 three-dimensional "boats" made of glass, wood, hay, and other materials by 16 contemporary American artists.

April 7, 1989 – August 6, 1989

Renwick Gallery

Bound to Vary: Billy Budd, Sailor (Hand-bound Copies of Billy Budd)

See 16 uniquely bound editions of the book Billy Budd, Sailor by 19th-century American author Herman Melville, in a variety of artistic styles and techniques.

April 17, 1989 – July 30, 1989

Renwick Gallery

Featured Object: "Javanese Mother and Child" by Paul Bogatay

View a clay sculpture by the artist (1905-1972) created in 1936 when Americans were intrigued with exotic island cultures.

March 1, 1989 – June 1, 1989

Renwick Gallery

Finishing Touches: Silver and Silk

Admire and purchase scarves, pins, brooches, and pendants made by leading U.S. craftspersons employing various media: silver, silk, wood, cotton, wool, or gold.

February 10, 1989 – April 16, 1989

Renwick Gallery