Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

Japanese Theater in the Edo Period

See Kabuki and puppet theater performances that are the subjects of many of these paintings on hanging scrolls, hand-scrolls, screens, and wood-block prints, all of the Edo period (1615-1868).

July 26, 1985 – October 14, 1985

Asian Art Museum, West Building

From Zoo to Art: Animal Subjects by American Sculptors

Examine the animal as a subject for 19th- and 20th-century American artists in 51 sculptures and works on paper from NMAA's collection.

March 1, 1985 – October 14, 1985

American Art Museum

Igbo Arts: Community and Cosmos

View the diversity of art styles among the Igbo people of southeastern Nigeria illustrated by more than 100 objects in this exhibition.

July 31, 1985 – October 14, 1985

African Art Museum

Wine: Celebration and Ceremony

See more than 350 objects in a major exhibition that documents the impact of wine on the history of design.

June 4, 1985 – October 13, 1985

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Timeless Sources: Rare Books in the Cooper-Hewitt Museum

View selected volumes of illustrated rare books on design, chosen from the Cooper-Hewitt collection of more than 3,000 volumes dating from the 16th through the 20th centuries.

May 21, 1985 – October 6, 1985

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Resident Associate Trilobite

See a 400-million-year-old trilobite found by Resident Associate Y. Kirkpatrick Howard during a Resident Associate Program collecting trip.

September 1, 1985 – September 30, 1985

Natural History Museum

See books and a manuscript documenting early European voyages and travels to India, accounts of British officials who served in India, and the influence of Indian art motifs on British designs and tastes.

June 7, 1985 – September 30, 1985

American History Museum

Crossroads (Calder Gouache)

Visit Alexander Calder's Crossroads , donated to NASM and displayed as part of RAP's 20th Anniversary.

September 1, 1985 – September 30, 1985

Air and Space Museum

Industrial Design: An American Case History (Singer Sewing Machine)

See sewing machines, models, and other selections from the collection of Industrial Design drawings donated to MAH by Singer.

July 24, 1985 – September 29, 1985

American History Museum

Material Evidence: New Color Techniques in Handmade Furniture

View 23 pieces of handcrafted furniture created by 19 contemporary woodworkers who were invited to explore the design possibilities of Formica Corporation's new solid color laminate, Colorcore.

April 26, 1985 – September 22, 1985

Renwick Gallery

Discovery Theater Art & Writing Contest Winners

View more than 30 paintings, drawings, stories, and poems selected from over 4,500 entries submitted by Washington area students in the Discovery Theater Art and Writing Contests.

April 1, 1985 – September 19, 1985

Arts and Industries Building

The Martha Jackson Memorial Collection

Discover 66 works selected from the 127 paintings, sculptures and works on paper given to NMAA by David Anderson in honor of his mother, Martha Jackson, who was best-known for encouraging abstract expressionist artists.

June 21, 1985 – September 15, 1985

American Art Museum

Carnegie's Libraries: A Sesquicentennial Celebration

Focus on the architectural impact of one of Andrew Carnegie's most significant philanthropies, the funding and construction of more than 2,500 free public libraries throughout the world,

June 11, 1985 – September 5, 1985

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

The Riza-i Abbasi Album (Masterpieces of Iranian Drawing)

View 27 drawings, many of them signed and dated by or attributable to Riza-i Abbasi (also known as Aga Riza), acknowledged by art historians to have been among the greatest artists of Iran's Safavid empire (1502-1736).

June 1, 1985 – September 2, 1985

Asian Art Museum, West Building

Ming Dynasty Calligraphy and Painting

View 25 hand and hanging scrolls executed by 40 artists of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) that present comparisons between calligraphy and painting.

February 8, 1985 – September 2, 1985

Asian Art Museum, West Building

Focus on Flight: Four Decades of Aerial Photography (Rudy Arnold and Hans Groenhoff)

View 100 photographs by Rudy Arnold and Hans Groenhoff, featuring record-setting events and aircraft in their surroundings, that portray aviation from the mid-1920s through the 1950s.

November 16, 1984 – September 2, 1985

Air and Space Museum

A Truthful Likeness: Chester Harding and His Portraits

Admire 60 portraits by Harding, a backwoodsman with no formal education, who became one of America's most successful portrait painters in the era after Gilbert Stuart.

April 12, 1985 – September 2, 1985

Portrait Gallery

Rosalind Solomon: India

See some 40 photographs taken primarily at festivals in India by American photographer Rosalind Solomon from 1981 to 1984 while a Senior Research Fellow with the American Institute of Indian Studies.

June 4, 1985 – September 2, 1985

Natural History Museum

Representation Abroad

Representational art outside of, or not strictly related to, the current Neo-Expressionist movement is featured in this exhibition of 147 works including paintings, drawings, and sculptures by 16 artists working in Europe.

June 5, 1985 – September 2, 1985

Hirshhorn Museum

Animals Native to India

See animals from India throughout the zoo: Indian sarus, Indian elephant, Bengal tigers, leopards, Indian spot-bill duck, red (lesser) pandas, bintarong, sloth bears, lion-tailed macaque, Eld's deer, and hoopoe bird.

June 1, 1985 – August 31, 1985

National Zoo

Reptiles from India

See the Tokay gecko, gharial, king cobra, Indian pond turtle, Indian rat snake, purple-spotted pit viper, leopard gecko, star tortoise, Indian python, sand boas, and Indian cobras.

July 1, 1985 – August 31, 1985

National Zoo

Architects Design for the Tabletop

Admire and purchase dinnerware, serving pieces, fabrics, and decorative accessories designed by such architects as Charles Gwathmey, Richard Meier, Robert Siegel, and Robert Venturi.

May 2, 1985 – August 25, 1985

Renwick Gallery

Chicago Furniture: Art, Craft and Industry, 1833-1983

Examine 165 pieces of furniture and decorative objects in a survey of the major trends and innovations of furniture design and manufacture in Chicago.

May 21, 1985 – August 25, 1985

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Celestial Images: Astronomical Charts, 1500-1900

See some 30 objects, including the planispheres of Albrecht Durer, an Islamic celestial globe, and constellation figures from five of the finest celestial atlases.

May 16, 1985 – August 23, 1985

American History Museum

Lithographs of James McNeill Whistler

See 84 lithotints executed by the American expatriate artist, including delicately washed views of the Thames, depictions of London and its tradesmen, and portraits of family and friends.

May 3, 1985 – August 18, 1985

American Art Museum