Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

Wine, Worship and Sacrifice: The Golden Graves of Ancient Vani

See more than 100 objects that provide a rich archaeological view of the ancient Asian country Colchis—land of the Golden Fleece.

December 1, 2007 – February 24, 2008

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Windows

See a small smoked glass sculpture created in 1969 by Robert Fritz of San Jose State College in California. Dr. Fritz has made important contributions to the techniques of glass blowing.

October 1, 1982 – November 28, 1982

Renwick Gallery

Willys Model MB Jeep

In honor of D-Day, June 6, 1984, see a Willys Model MB Jeep, typical of the four-wheel drive jeeps used in World War II, including the D-Day maneuvers.

June 1, 1984 – June 30, 1984

American History Museum

Enjoy William Wegman's smart, gently subversive humor that parodies all things familiar in this exhibition featuring 200 works in a variety of media -- from photographs and paintings to conceptual works and videos.

July 1, 2006 – September 24, 2006

American Art Museum

William Spencer Churchill

View a portrait, photographs and cartoons that are used to illustrate the multi-facets of his long career.

November 27, 1974 – January 30, 1975

Portrait Gallery

William Short: First U.S. Career Diplomat

See documents, commissions, and memorabilia from the life of G. Washington's first Charge d'Affairs to France.

May 1, 1983 – September 30, 1983

American History Museum

William Penhallow Henderson, 1877-1943: An Artist of Santa Fe

Pastels predominate this exhibition of 40 works, many of which depict religious scenes and Indian ceremonials in and around Santa Fe, New Mexico.

November 10, 1978 – June 10, 1979

American Art Museum

William Kentridge

View 13 animated short films and some 60 related figure drawings created since the late 1980s by South African artist William Kentridge.

February 28, 2001 – May 13, 2001

Hirshhorn Museum

William Hunt Diederich Fire Screen: Stag Attacked by Hounds

This wrought iron, copper, and brass fire screen was made by Diederich around 1920 for the studio of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney.

October 1, 1988 – November 30, 1988

American Art Museum

William Hawkins: "Food Bar"

Visit an enamel-on-panel painting called Food Bar (1980) by the self-taught Afro-American artist.

February 1, 1989 – February 28, 1989

American Art Museum

William Harvey and the Study of the Heart

A 1628 edition of the book from the Dibner Library as well as 19th century instruments used in bloodletting and 20th century pacemakers are on view marking the 400th anniversary of William Harvey's birth.

October 1, 1978 – October 31, 1978

American History Museum

William Harper: Recent Works in Enamel

Admire 50 works--pins, rattles, pendants, puzzles, amulet and necklaces--by Harper, Assistant Professor of Art at Florida State University.

November 24, 1977 – April 2, 1978

Renwick Gallery

William H. Johnson: The Scandinavian Years

Track a distinctive phase in the career of the black American artist through his expressionistic works of Danish people and landscapes executed in highly saturated colors.

September 17, 1982 – November 28, 1982

American Art Museum

William H. Johnson's World on Paper

Never-before-exhibited prints reveal African American modernist painter William H. Johnson (1901-1970) to be a powerful graphic artist.

June 30, 2006 – January 7, 2007

American Art Museum

William H. Johnson

See 15 oils and 10 drawings that reflect Johnson's roots as a rural black South Carolinian, his studies in New York, his travels in France, Scandinavia, and North Africa, and his work for the WPA Federal Art Project in Harlem.

October 10, 1975 – October 17, 1975

American Art Museum

William Edward West: Kentucky Painter

See 40 portraits in the first major study of the ante-bellum painter

April 12, 1985 – June 16, 1985

Portrait Gallery

William Edmondson Sculpture

The Featured Acquisition of the Month: Crucifixion, an example of the black folk artist's mature work, is on view. Carved of limestone in the late 1930s, the piece is the gift of Elizabeth Gibbons-Hanson.

February 1, 1983 – February 28, 1983

American Art Museum

William Daley: Ceramic Works and Drawings

Enjoy this traveling exhibition of 40 works in clay and bronze and on paper that provides the first critical analysis of the career of this prominent Philadelphia artist.

February 18, 1994 – April 17, 1994

Renwick Gallery

William Cullen Bryant

Mark the 100th anniversary of Bryant's death with a small exhibition including a silver Tiffany vase commissioned by friends for his 80th birthday; an edition of the New York Evening Post, which he edited for 50 years; a bust by Henry Kirke Brown; and an oil portrait by Daniel Huntington.

June 12, 1978 – October 27, 1978

Portrait Gallery

Willi Smith: Street Couture

In the first museum exhibition dedicated to American designer Willi Smith (1948–1987), over 200 works by Smith and collaborators will illuminate how the streetwear pioneer broke down social, cultural, and economic boundaries.

March 13, 2020 – October 24, 2021

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Willem de Kooning: From the Hirshhorn Museum Collection

View 50 works by de Kooning who pioneered the "gestural" strain of Abstract Expressionism in the 1940s.

October 21, 1993 – January 9, 1994

Hirshhorn Museum

Will Wilson: Auto Immune Response

Photographer and artist Will Wilson (Navajo) creates an imagined environment to show what the Navajos' relationship to the land might be like in the distant future.

May 4, 2006 – September 24, 2006

American Indian Museum New York