Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

Graphics Installation

Enjoy these new acquisitions that comprise a representative selection of the works on paper acquired by the museum during the past 2-1/2 years.

January 3, 1989 – January 31, 1989

American Art Museum

"The Fabric of a Friendship" and "Delaware 350": Commemorating New Sweden, 1638-1988

Marking the 350th anniversary of the first Swedish settlement in the U.S., this exhibition looks at the contributions of Swedish and Finnish settlers in the Delaware River Valley and their relationship with the Algonquin Indians.

October 21, 1988 – January 31, 1989

American History Museum

1989 Staff Art Showcase

Staff members from the American Art Museum, the Portrait Gallery, and the Archives of American Art display their creativity in this annual exhibition.

January 1, 1989 – January 29, 1989

American Art Museum

Echoes of the Kalabari: Sculpture by Sokari Douglas Camp

View 13 life-sized sculptures of masqueraders, drummers, and female audience figures--many of them motorized and audible--by the contemporary Nigerian artist.

November 11, 1988 – January 29, 1989

African Art Museum

Kalabari Ancestral Screens: Levels of Meaning

Explore the traditional function, history, and formal qualities of sacred screens used to commemorate the most important ancestors of southern Nigeria's Kalabari people.

November 11, 1988 – January 29, 1989

African Art Museum

California Craft

Admire and purchase the diverse objects in this sales exhibition, including wood letter openers and bracelets, quilts, silver and glass jewelry, glass and wood perfume bottles, glass vases, and ceramic bottle forms.

October 14, 1988 – January 22, 1989

Renwick Gallery

Directions: Walter Pinchler

This small-scale solo show features drawings by Austrian artist Walter Pichler.

October 26, 1988 – January 22, 1989

Hirshhorn Museum

Kryzysztof Wodiczko Works

Wodiczko (b. 1943), a Canadian artist who resides in New York City, specializes in slide projections that reflect social issues.

October 25, 1988 – January 22, 1989

Hirshhorn Museum

Recent Acquisitions (1988-89)

See portraits of Thornton Wilder by Reginald Marsh, Katharine Hepburn by Boris Chaliapin, a self-portrait by Anders Zorn and other paintings, sculpture, prints, and photographs recently acquired by the Portrait Gallery.

August 20, 1988 – January 22, 1989

Portrait Gallery

European Space Agency (ESA) Exhibition

View models and artifacts that highlight 4 space science missions of the European Space Agency.

August 25, 1988 – January 20, 1989

Air and Space Museum

The Year in Pictures: History Are Seen from the Mall

View 60 black-and-white photographs documenting events that occurred on or near the Mall in between March 1987 and 1988.

August 8, 1988 – January 15, 1989

American History Museum

1988 Trees of Christmas

Visit 11 live spruce and fir trees, ranging from 8 to 12 feet in height, decorated with handcrafted ornaments reflecting America's ethnic heritages, nature, and traditional crafts.

December 16, 1988 – January 8, 1989

American History Museum

Erich Mendelsohn: Architectural Drawings

See project drawings by the German-born Mendelsohn, a contemporary of many of Europe's "second generation" of architects -- Mies van der Rohe, Walter Gropius, and Bruno and Max Taut -- who determined the direction of European architecture in the 1920s and 1930s.

October 18, 1988 – January 8, 1989

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Castings of Faith: Old Russian Copper Crosses and Icons from the Kunz Collection

See more than 50 icons and crosses from pre-Soviet Russia.

May 19, 1988 – January 8, 1989

American History Museum

The Modern Dutch Poster: The First Fifty Years, 1890-1940

Enjoy the diversity and unique quality of Dutch poster arts during the first half of this century.

October 4, 1988 – January 8, 1989

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Places of Power: Sacred Sites of the Americas and Pacific

See painted photographs of pre-European ceremonial sites.

September 9, 1988 – January 8, 1989

Natural History Museum

Out of Africa

View a poster panel exhibition of photographs, illustrations, text, and quotations from contemporary publications, that trace the passage from West Africa to America, and back to West Africa.

August 1, 1987 – January 6, 1989

Anacostia Community Museum

Christmas Tree Decorated by Associates in 1988

See the Christmas tree that features hand-crafted ornaments from the U.S. and abroad donated by the Smithsonian Associates over the last 16 years.

December 5, 1988 – January 6, 1989

Ripley Center

In Praise of Ancestors: Ritual Objects from China

View bronzes and neolithic jade from the Sackler gift, including 2 bronze vessels showing how naturalistic forms could be adapted to abstract interpretations; a dramatic graduated set of 6 bronze bells; and a silk manuscript, which is one of the most famous early Chinese documents known.

September 28, 1987 – January 2, 1989

Asian Art Museum, East Building

On the Air: Pioneers of American Broadcasting

Stroll down memory late with this exhibition highlighting people who made radio and television broadcast history from the early 1900s to the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon debates.

October 7, 1988 – January 2, 1989

Portrait Gallery

Tropical Rain Forests: A Disappearing Treasure

Examine tropical rain forests and the causes and global consequences of losing these natural resources.

May 21, 1988 – January 2, 1989

Ripley Center

State of the Universe

See 6 paintings by contemporary artist Andreas Nottebohm exhibited in conjunction with the Albert Einstein Planetarium show, State of the Universe.

November 20, 1986 – January 1, 1989

Air and Space Museum

Rome at War As Seen Through Coins

Rome's conquest of the Mediterranean world is illustrated by the coins Romans and their adversaries minted.

October 22, 1988 – January 1, 1989

American History Museum

Sculpture Installation

See 6 small sculptures in a wall case, including Belle Lachaise by Gaston Lachaise; Head of Gertrude Lawrence by Jose de Creeft; and works by Emily Bishop, Arthur Davies, David Hare, and Sargent Johnson.

December 1, 1988 – December 31, 1988

American Art Museum

The Legacy Endures (Duck Stamp)

This exhibition traces national efforts to preserve and restore migratory waterfowl populations and their wetland habitats.

July 1, 1988 – December 30, 1988

American History Museum