Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

Little Pictures, Big Lives: Snapshots from the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art

See snapshots of celebrated and famous artists that offer new insights into their intimate lives.

July 1, 2011 – October 3, 2011

Artists at Work

See paintings, drawings, prints, quilts, jewelry, photographs, sculpture, ceramics, and more that reveal the talents and interests of members of the Smithsonian community.

June 23, 2011 – October 2, 2011

Ripley Center

Stamps of Approval

See eight objects featured in the U.S. Postal Service's Pioneers of American Industrial Design series of Forever stamps.

August 12, 2011 – September 25, 2011

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

2010 Nature's Best Photography: Windland Smith Rice International Awards

On view are winners in various categories from the 2010 Nature's Best Photography Windland Smith Rice International Awards.

April 16, 2011 – September 25, 2011

Natural History Museum

Glimpse of the Past: A Neighborhood Evolves

Experience the sights, scenes, and beautiful buildings that make up the ever-changing Penn Quarter neighborhood in downtown Washington, D.C.

March 5, 2010 – September 25, 2011

Portrait Gallery

September 11: Remembrance and Reflection

The museum offers a close-up view of more than 50 objects from the three sites: New York City; the Pentagon; and Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

September 3, 2011 – September 11, 2011

American History Museum

Preston Singletary: Echoes, Fire, and Shadows

Some 54 works by internationally renowned glass artist Preston Singletary (Tlingit) illustrate his evolution as an artist over the past two decades.

March 19, 2011 – September 5, 2011

American Indian Museum New York

Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop & Turn

This exhibition on innovative book design highlights movable, pop-up, folding, and multiple-construction books from the year 1570 to the present day.

June 14, 2010 – September 5, 2011

American History Museum

Capital Portraits: Treasures from Washington Private Collections, 1730-2010

This exhibition presents portraits-- many on view for the first time -- that reside in private Washington, D.C., collections.

April 8, 2011 – September 5, 2011

Portrait Gallery

To Make a World: George Ault and 1940s America

The exhibition features approximately 50 paintings, drawings, and photographs by Ault and his contemporaries, including the well-known artists Edward Hopper and Andrew Wyeth, as well as recently rediscovered painters Edward Biberman and Dede Plummer.

March 11, 2011 – September 5, 2011

American Art Museum

Portrait of Stephen Colbert

The portrait of Stephen Colbert (b. 1964, Washington, D.C.), the mock pundit from the Comedy Central show The Colbert Report, is back on view.

December 16, 2010 – August 31, 2011

American History Museum

Fragments in Time and Space

View a selection of works that demonstrate the diverse ways artists have conceptualized, employed, and manipulated time and space.

June 23, 2011 – August 28, 2011

Hirshhorn Museum

Ancient Chinese Pottery and Bronze

The exhibition shows the complex, changing relationship between two of China's oldest artistic traditions: ceramic and bronze vessels.

March 7, 1997 – August 14, 2011

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Calder's Portraits: A New Language

Featured are Alexander Calder's three-dimensional wire portraits alongside contemporary documents by other artists.

March 11, 2011 – August 14, 2011

Portrait Gallery

Black Box: Laurent Grasso

See two of Laurent Grasso's video works that depict strange interfaces between the natural world and humankind.

April 4, 2011 – August 14, 2011

Hirshhorn Museum

Charles Lang Freer and Egypt

See some 70 small glass vessels, bronzes, amulets, and sculptures from the New Kingdom to the Roman Period from Freer's eclectic collection of Egyptian artifacts.

June 13, 1998 – August 14, 2011

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Buddhist Art

See how the civilizations that have embraced Buddhism have given a local and distinctive interpretation and sensibility to the representation of the Buddha as well as to the other images and symbols characteristic of Buddhist art.

May 9, 1993 – August 8, 2011

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Chinamania: Whistler and the Victorian Craze for Blue-and-White

Follow the craze for blue-and-white porcelain in Whistler's England during the 1870s through 23 works of art.

August 7, 2010 – August 7, 2011

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Korean Ceramics

View Korean ceramics made between 200 and 1900, ranging from tableware and Buddhist cinerary urns to bowls, bottles, and storage jars.

March 1, 1997 – August 7, 2011

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Vantage Point: The Contemporary Native Art Collection

View significant works by 25 Native American artists in a range of media that highlight the museum's collection of contemporary art.

September 25, 2010 – August 7, 2011

American Indian Museum DC

History in the Making: Renwick Craft Invitational 2011

This exhibition features works by four extraordinary artists, who are creating works of superior craftsmanship that address the classic craft notion of function without sacrificing a contemporary aesthetic: Cliff Lee, Matthias Pliessnig, Judith Schaecter, Ubaldo Vitali.

March 25, 2011 – July 31, 2011

Renwick Gallery

Echoes of the Past: The Buddhist Cave Temples of Xiangtangshan

Majestic 6th-century Chinese Buddhist sculpture is combined with 21st-century 3D-imaging technology in this exploration of one of the most important groups of Buddhist devotional sites in early medieval China.

February 26, 2011 – July 31, 2011

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

GRAB

Photographs document the Laguna Pueblo tradition of Grab Day, a community-wide prayer of abundance, thanks, and renewal.

January 29, 2011 – July 31, 2011

American Indian Museum New York

So Much Need of Service: The Diary of a Civil War Nurse

The experiences of Civil War nurse Amanda Akin reflect the sacrifices of millions of Americans who contributed to the war effort.

April 22, 2011 – July 29, 2011

American History Museum

Word, Shout, Song: Lorenzo Dow Turner - Connecting Communities through Language

Learn how the Gullah people of Georgia and South Carolina have retained traces of their West African culture and language that their enslaved ancestors brought to the Americas.

August 9, 2010 – July 24, 2011

Anacostia Community Museum