Past Exhibitions

The Early Sixties: American Culture

Experience the culture of the early 1960s, the era in which the National Museum of History and Technology, now the National Museum of American History, opened.

April 25, 2014 – August 23, 2015

Special Installation of Nineteen American Masterworks

These masterworks from Gilded Age, Impressionist, and Ashcan School painters help to tell the story of the late 19th century and early 20th centuries in America, a “coming-of-age” period in American art.

April 17, 2015 – August 16, 2015

American Art Museum

Beyond Bollywood: Indian Americans Shape the Nation

Learn about the Indian American experience and their dynamic role in shaping American society.

February 27, 2014 – August 16, 2015

Natural History Museum

Black Box: Risto-Pekka Blom

Media artist Risto-Pekka Blom (Finnish, b. 1970, Mikkeli; lives and works in Tampere) is featured in the newest exhibition in the Black Box space. The exhibition consists of a single work, “Kurdrjavka [Little Ball of Fur]” (2013). It is the first U.S. museum presentation of the artist’s work.

April 27, 2015 – August 9, 2015

Hirshhorn Museum

TIME Covers the 1960s

See how Time magazine covered the people, trends, and happenings that defined the 1960s.

September 26, 2014 – August 9, 2015

American Indian Museum DC

Mingering Mike's Supersonic Greatest Hits

See how self-taught Washington, D.C., artist "Mingering Mike" exercised his youthful fantasy of being a famous soul singer/songwriter in the late 1960s and the 1970s—and reflected the aspirations of countless other kids who dreamed of being discovered.

February 27, 2015 – August 2, 2015

American Art Museum

Artist Teacher Organizer: Yasuo Kuniyoshi in the Archives of American Art

Included in this exhibition are letters, photographs, writings, and rare printed materials documenting Yasuo Kuniyoshi’s life and work. This exhibition is organized in conjunction with The Artistic Journey of Yasuo Kuniyoshi exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

March 30, 2015 – July 10, 2015

Archives of American Art

Our Lives: Contemporary Life and Identities

This exhibition examines the identities of Native peoples in the 21st century, and how those identities—both individual and communal—are the results of deliberate, often difficult choices made in challenging circumstances.

September 21, 2004 – July 6, 2015

George Carlin

Our “Recognize” wall seeks to commemorate Americans who have influenced politics, history, and culture. The public voted to honor comedian George Carlin for the Portrait Gallery’s most recent Recognize selection.

March 27, 2015 – July 5, 2015

Celia Cruz Portrait by Robert Weingarten

See a composite "portrait" of legendary singer Celia Cruz (1924-2003) made up of images of objects in the museum's collection that represent her.

October 3, 2012 – July 5, 2015

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Zen, Tea, and Chinese Art in Medieval Japan

In this exhibition, Chinese and Japanese paintings, lacquer ware, and ceramics illuminate this remarkable period of cultural contact and synthesis.

December 13, 2014 – June 14, 2015

Oribe Ware: Color and Pattern Come to Japanese Ceramics

This exhibition highlights the best selections of Oribe ware in the Freer's collection, including two new acquisitions on view for the first time.

December 13, 2014 – June 14, 2015

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Outside the Spacecraft: 50 Years of Extra-Vehicular Activity

This exhibition presents art, photography, artifacts, and personal accounts that relate the continuing story of EVA.

January 8, 2015 – June 8, 2015

Air and Space Museum

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

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

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Maira Kalman Selects

56 objects from the collections of Cooper Hewitt, other Smithsonian museums, and Kalman herself, arranged by the acclaimed author, artist, and designer to suggest the journey of a life story, from birth through death.

December 12, 2014 – June 7, 2015

Style in Chinese Landscape Painting: The Yuan Dynasty Legacy

This exhibition includes the earliest work in the museum collection together with later examples tracing the characteristics and evolution of six key styles.

November 22, 2014 – May 31, 2015

Asian Art Museum Freer 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

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Tools: Extending Our Reach

Can tools be functional and have great design? This exhibition examines the role and significance of tools that span world cultures and histories.

December 12, 2014 – May 25, 2015

Mr. Lincoln's Washington: A Civil War Portfolio

Photographs, prints, drawings, and maps reveal how the Civil War affected life in the District of Columbia.

December 13, 2013 – May 25, 2015

Lincoln's Carriage

A special display of the carriage that transported the President, Mary Todd Lincoln, Major Henry Rathbone and his fiancée Clara Harris to Ford’s Theatre on April 14, 1865.

March 23, 2015 – May 25, 2015

One Life: Grant and Lee: "It is well that war is so terrible..."

Paintings, photographs, documents, and objects reveal the personal lives and professional rivalries of Union General Ulysses S. Grant and Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

July 4, 2014 – May 25, 2015

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