Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

Relief Sculpture from the Hirshhorn Museum Collection

A selective survey of 46 works by 36 American and European artists traces the evolution of this form of sculpture--the intermediary between 2- and 3-dimensional art--from early 19th-century portrait medallions to contemporary constructions and assemblages.

January 28, 1986 – April 13, 1986

Hirshhorn Museum

Private Lives of Public Figures: The 19th-Century Family Print

This exhibit provides a glimpse of the domestic moments of some of our nation's leaders, shown in "at home" settings.

September 6, 1985 – April 13, 1986

Portrait Gallery

Memphis/Milano

See examples of the work of the international consortium, Memphis: design and architectural drawings, furniture, glass, ceramics, lighting fixtures, textiles, graphics, and architectural models.

January 21, 1986 – April 13, 1986

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Soup to Nuts

Admire and purchase unique but functional table-top service pieces, including bowls, casseroles, platters, tureens, pitchers, goblets, and placemats, created in a variety of materials by some 25 craftspeople from all over the country.

February 10, 1986 – April 6, 1986

Renwick Gallery

President Harry S. Truman Centennial: The Berlin Airlift

View photographs and memorabilia from the Berlin airlift, highlighting the role of the Truman Administration.

May 8, 1984 – March 31, 1986

Air and Space Museum

The Fat and the Lean: American Wood Type of the 19th Century

View a pictorial history of the evolution of type from old style "lean" letters to a proliferation of "fat" and specialized letters known as "artistic printing."

June 17, 1983 – March 31, 1986

American History Museum

Allegories and Fantasies

See works on paper from the HMSG collections.

January 1, 1986 – March 31, 1986

Hirshhorn Museum

Fire and Ice (Comet Art)

Discover iconographic representations of comets through drawings, paintings, illuminated manuscripts, and sculptures, ranging from ancient Babylonian clay tablets to a 20th-century Lalique hood ornament.

October 24, 1985 – March 31, 1986

Air and Space Museum

Directions 1986

Eight Americans are represented by nearly 40 works in two broad thematic sections in this exhibition.

February 6, 1986 – March 30, 1986

Hirshhorn Museum

Aditi: The Monies of India

This exhibition, showing the broad sweep of Indian history as reflected in 300 of her numismatic objects, is drawn from the National Numismatic Collections at MAH.

October 25, 1985 – March 30, 1986

American History Museum

Latin America, Science and Technology: A Display

See rare books on the subjects of science and technology in South America.

February 3, 1986 – March 24, 1986

American History Museum

American Art Medals

See 31 medals chosen for inclusion in the 20th International Exposition of Modern Medallic Art in Stockholm, Sweden, early in 1985.

December 7, 1985 – March 20, 1986

American History Museum

Conversations With Another World: Romaine Brooks in the National Museum of American Art

See 37 drawings from the NMAA collection by the expatriate artist who died in France in 1971.

November 29, 1985 – March 19, 1986

American Art Museum

The Rising of a New Moon: A Century of Tabwa Art

View approximately 80 carved ancestral figures, masks, musical instruments, and utilitarian objects that present the work of the Tabwa people of southeastern Zaire and northeastern Zambia.

January 29, 1986 – March 17, 1986

African Art Museum

Photographs from the Permanent Collection

The 125 works on view demonstrate the range and diversity of NMAA's collection of 20th-century photography.

September 13, 1985 – March 9, 1986

American Art Museum

Advertising America

Examine over 150 print and television advertisements organized into such themes as At Work, At Home, At Leisure, and On the Road in an exhibition that illustrates how advertising influences, and, conversely, reflects social change.

December 17, 1985 – March 9, 1986

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Treasures from the Land: 12 New Zealand Craftsmen and Their Native Materials

See 70 works by New Zealand craftsmen including woven hangings of natural wool, carved and painted gourds, sculptural ceramic vessels, Maori feather capes, a carved ceremonial doorway, and delicate jewelry of inlaid woods, precious metals, and minerals.

November 15, 1985 – March 9, 1986

Renwick Gallery

Music and Dance of Papua New Guinea

View over 65 color photographs taken by photographer Jordan Wright in Papua New Guinea, as well as 28 artifacts, including musical instruments, costumes, necklaces, bracelets, and objects of personal adornment.

January 10, 1986 – March 9, 1986

Natural History Museum

Recent Acquisitions (1985-86)

See a sampling of the portraiture of influential Americans past and present recently acquired by NPG for the permanent collection.

June 8, 1985 – February 24, 1986

Portrait Gallery

The Golden Eye: An International Tribute to the Artisans of India

Take in a major exhibition of crafts and products devised in collaboration between traditional artisans of India and world-famous designers from Europe and America.

November 5, 1985 – February 23, 1986

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

The Naming of America

View a 1507 World map thought to be by Martin Waldseemuller, a German mapmaker, probably the first map to designate the New World continents as America, and supplemented by related materials.

October 26, 1983 – February 17, 1986

American History Museum

Artists on Paper: Prints, Photographs and Drawings from NPG Collection

Portraits and self-portraits of eminent American artists represented in the NPG collection.

November 22, 1985 – February 16, 1986

Portrait Gallery

Gaston Lachaise: Portrait Sculpture

Visit more than 60 portrait sculptures by French-born Gaston Lachaise (1882-1935), most of them executed in the U.S. in the 1920s and 1930s.

November 22, 1985 – February 16, 1986

Portrait Gallery

Meisho-e: Famous Places of Japan

Taking its name from the Japanese word for "pictures of famous places," visit an exhibition that includes some 18 examples of paintings, prints, drawings, and ceramics depicting renowned locations of the archipelago.

October 18, 1985 – February 9, 1986

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Ch'ing Dynasty Calligraphy and Painting

Visit approximately 30 masterpieces of China's Ch'ing Dynasty (1644-1911).

September 6, 1985 – February 2, 1986

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery