Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

Variations: Musicians in Caricature, 1920-1960

Original caricature portraits of composers, conductors, and performers show the growth in popularity of modern American music--jazz, musical theater, and popular songs.

April 14, 1984 – September 16, 1984

Portrait Gallery

The Better to See

View some 35 spectacles and eye testing charts from the 17th to the 20th century.

April 1, 1984 – September 16, 1984

American History Museum

Patterns and Forms in African Art

See some 30 works examining pattern and form in four sections: body painting and body scarification; "Decorated Form," illustrating the way in which African artists shape household objects; ritual uses and qualities; and pattern in textiles.

August 20, 1984 – September 16, 1984

African Art Museum

Erastus Salisbury Field: 1805-1900

View 29 paintings and drawings in a major retrospective exhibition of one of America's preeminent 19th-century naive painters.

June 8, 1984 – September 4, 1984

American Art Museum

Erastus Salisbury Field: 1805-1900

View 73 portraits by one of America's preeminent 19th-century naive painters who lived and worked most of his life in the Connecticut River Valley.

June 8, 1984 – September 4, 1984

Portrait Gallery

Golden Age of Flight: Art Exhibition

See thirty art works by young American artists, selected from contest entries.

April 5, 1984 – September 3, 1984

Air and Space Museum

Roger Tory Peterson: 50th Anniversary of "A Field Guide to the Birds of North America"

View some 100 works by the artist/naturalist Roger Tory Peterson, honoring the 50th anniversary of the publication of A Field Guide to the Birds of North America.

April 27, 1984 – September 3, 1984

Natural History Museum

Harvey K. Littleton: Glass Sculptures and Ceramics

Trace Littleton's evolution from studio potter to an internationally respected glass artist, recognized as the "father" of the modern studio glass movement, with these 108 objects.

March 30, 1984 – September 3, 1984

Renwick Gallery

Wood Works: Constructions by Robert Indiana

See approximately 31 constructions by the contemporary American pop artist. Created from materials salvaged from New York City demolition debris, the works contain complex references to literary or historical figures, world events, or to his own paintings.

May 1, 1984 – September 3, 1984

American Art Museum

The Baltimore Clay Works

Admire and purchase functional pottery created by 12 artists whose individual approaches produce works in a range of styles.

August 1, 1984 – September 3, 1984

Renwick Gallery

Special Installation: Glass

See 6 pieces of contemporary glass from the permanent collection

April 6, 1984 – September 3, 1984

Renwick Gallery

Conserving Collections: Problems and Solutions

See objects illustrating a variety of conservation problems, from a baby's jacket faded by light to a tarnished candlestick and an example of cracked glass. P

May 1, 1984 – August 31, 1984

American History Museum

Smokey Bear's New Honey Tree

Marvel at an automated honey- and berry-dispensing tree constructed to mark the 40th anniversary of Smokey's becoming the symbol for prevention of forest fires.

August 1, 1984 – August 31, 1984

National Zoo

At Home in the Sky: Aviation Art of Frank Wootton

See a retrospective including 57 paintings and sketches of civil and military aircraft, landscapes, and equestrian subjects by Frank Wootton, considered the foremost aviation artist today.

September 15, 1983 – August 26, 1984

Air and Space Museum

Edward Colonna, American Art Nouveau Designer

See approximately 134 examples of furniture, glass, jewelry, textiles, and design drawings, highlighted by pieces he created in the 1890s in Paris.

April 27, 1984 – August 19, 1984

Renwick Gallery

Artistic Collaboration in the Twentieth Century

View more than 100 works by 70 teams of artists, both American and European, between 1913 and 1983, including Gilbert and George, Ernst and Arp, and Picasso and Dali.

June 9, 1984 – August 19, 1984

Hirshhorn Museum

Southeastern Potteries

This exhibition traces the evolution of contemporary approaches to pottery in the Southeast regions of the U.S.

June 27, 1984 – August 19, 1984

American History Museum

Black Wings: The American Black in Aviation

See an expanded version of the exhibition circulated by SITES, including among its additional artifacts photo murals and audio-visual programs, and the flight suit worn by black astronaut Guion Bluford during preparations for his 1983 space shuttle flight.

April 1, 1984 – August 5, 1984

Anacostia Community Museum

Visual Space in Music: Drawings by John De Cesare

See some 50 pencil drawings, notable for their outstanding draftsmanship and use of vibrant color, that express De Cesare's personal theory of the relationship between art and music.

May 1, 1984 – August 5, 1984

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Ethiopia: The Art of a Christian Nation

See 18 painted wood icons that form the nucleus of an exhibition that illustrates the stylistic evolution of Ethiopian religious art.

May 23, 1984 – August 5, 1984

African Art Museum

Chinese Paintings

See approximately 30 paintings spanning the Sung dynasty (960-1279) through the Ch'ing dynasty (1644-1912) and including 2 recently accessioned works by Tao-chi, a 17th-century painter with a wide reputation in the West.

March 9, 1984 – July 31, 1984

Asian Art Museum, West Building

Artisans in Metal: New Work from Boston University

Admire and purchase approximately 40 objects created by both students and faculty of the school.

May 10, 1984 – July 22, 1984

Renwick Gallery

Exploring Microspace

This exhibition looks at the instruments that scientists have used to explore the microscopic world and what they have found there.

March 16, 1984 – July 15, 1984

Natural History Museum

Circles of the World: Traditional Art of the Plains Indians

Investigate the Southwest American Indian belief that the circle is the perfect form--a metaphor for the universe--through domestic, ceremonial, tribal, and spiritual objects organized in four concentric "circles of the world."

April 24, 1984 – July 15, 1984

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Fanfare, Part I

See 31 examples from the 18th century, "the Golden Age of Fans," in the first of 3 consecutive installations.

February 14, 1984 – July 8, 1984

Renwick Gallery