Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

Microelectronics

Marvel at approximately 50 microelectronic devices, including not only early calculators of the 1950s, transistors and chips, but also some of the instruments associated with transistor and integrated-circuit fabrication.

February 1, 1984 – April 12, 1984

American History Museum

Art from Italy: A Selection from the Museum's Collection

More than 50 works represent a cross-section of Italian painting and sculpture, primarily from the postwar years.

February 1, 1984 – April 8, 1984

Hirshhorn Museum

Netsuke: Japanese Design in Miniature

See some 400 examples of "netsuke"; miniature Japanese sculptures in ivory, wood, and other materials, worn from the 16th to mid-19th centuries.

January 31, 1984 – April 8, 1984

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

The Equestrian Image

View a brass sculpture that served as a finial on a large iron staff, an emblem of leadership called a "sono" by the peoples of Guinea-Bissau in West Africa.

February 17, 1984 – April 8, 1984

African Art Museum

Lura Woodside Watkins: Cultural Historian, 1897-1982

Lura W. Watkins was an innovative scholar, studying 18th- and 19th- century artifacts in order to discover their importance in everyday life. See objects from the collections of the Divisions of Domestic Life and Ceramics and Glass, which she contributed to the Smithsonian.

January 19, 1984 – April 2, 1984

American History Museum

Charles Lang Freer, the Man and His Gallery

Follow the life, travels, and collection of Charles Lang Freer, using photographs and documents from the Freer Archives.

February 1, 1983 – April 1, 1984

Asian Art Museum, West Building

Japanese Portraiture

Visit a selection of 18 portraits and imaginary portraits by Japanese painters of the 13th to 19th centuries.

July 2, 1983 – April 1, 1984

Asian Art Museum, West Building

American Enterprise: 19th-Century Patent Models

Marvel at more than 500 patent models for technological development as well as for the betterment of the quality of daily life.

January 17, 1984 – April 1, 1984

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Valentine's Day Images in Commercial Advertising

View some 15 images, most of which are advertising tear sheets using the American "valentine."

March 1, 1984 – March 31, 1984

American History Museum

1983 Friends of the National Zoo Photography Contest

See 34 photos of scenes shot at the Zoo in the FONZ annual competition.

March 2, 1984 – March 30, 1984

National Zoo

Arnold Genthe: The Celebrity Portraits

Admire 60 original photographs of such celebrities as Sarah Bernhardt, Isadora Duncan, and Greta Garbo by turn-of-the-century photographer Arnold Genthe, whose distinctive work was characterized by use of soft focus and a chiaroscuro technique.

February 10, 1984 – March 25, 1984

Portrait Gallery

Artists by Themselves: Artists' Portraits from National Academy of Design

View 72 portraits and self-portraits of major American artists from the collection of the National Academy of Design.

February 10, 1984 – March 25, 1984

Portrait Gallery

Japanese Porcelain

See 33 examples of white ceramics, reserved for summer use, that were produced at Arita, Japan's great porcelain center from the 17th through the 19th century.

July 2, 1983 – March 11, 1984

Asian Art Museum, West Building

Through Their Eyes: The Art of Lou and Di Stovall

See 84 works--silkscreen prints, drawings, and acrylic paintings--by 2 Washington, D.C., artists, showing their progression from posterists to master printmaker and miniaturist, respectively.

September 18, 1983 – March 4, 1984

Anacostia Community Museum

Capital Assets: Jewelry by Washington Area Artists

Admire and purchase works in silver, gold, plastic, titanium, and cloisonne created by 21 artists.

January 6, 1984 – March 4, 1984

Renwick Gallery

Russel Wright: American Designer

Survey the work of one of the first industrial designers to break away from European dominance in design in these 250 examples of furniture, flatware, ceramics, glassware, serving pieces, fabrics, period photographs, and archival material.

November 4, 1983 – March 4, 1984

Renwick Gallery

To Dream of Fair Women

Admire 20 paintings of women in the romantically beautiful styles of Thomas Wilmer Dewing, James McNeill Whistler, and Abbott Handerson Thayer.

October 1, 1982 – March 1, 1984

Asian Art Museum, West Building

Studies in Connoisseurship, 1923-1983

Learn how continuing scholarly investigation of works in the collections of Asian and turn-of-the-century American art has changed the understanding of 60 representative objects collected by gallery founder Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919).

September 23, 1983 – February 29, 1984

Asian Art Museum, West Building

Botanical Drugs of the Americas in the Old & New Worlds(Case of the Month)

See numerous specimens of many botanical drugs used by Native Americans that were readily accepted into the European pharmacopoeia.

September 23, 1983 – February 29, 1984

American History Museum

One With the Earth: Native American Indian Art

This exhibition examines the many kinds of American Indian art: basketry, painting, sculpture, beadwork, and textile-weaving, with some 130 objects dating from the late 19th century to the present.

February 18, 1983 – February 29, 1984

Natural History Museum

Contemporary Australian Ceramics

See 78 works by 38 artists that illustrate the diversity of styles prevalent in Australian ceramics today.

December 16, 1983 – February 26, 1984

Renwick Gallery

Sawtooths & Other Ranges of Imagination: Contemporary Art of Idaho

Documenting the fine arts in Idaho, this exhibition presents 41 works by 28 artists--paintings, sculptures, assemblages, collages, prints, drawings, and paper constructions.

December 1, 1983 – February 20, 1984

American Art Museum

Japanese Ceramics from Past to Present

Take in a brief overview of the history of Japanese ceramics with these 50 pieces, ranging from a Neolithic Jomon pot and Yayoi jar of the 1st century B.C. to several 20th-century works. Included are several recent acquisitions on exhibit for the first time.

February 18, 1983 – February 12, 1984

Asian Art Museum, West Building

Dreams and Nightmares: Utopian Visions in Modern Art

A major loan exhibition of 136 works by 62 artists casts a sidelong glance at George Orwell's 1984 as we actually enter that year.

December 8, 1983 – February 12, 1984

Hirshhorn Museum

The King of Siam Presentation Set and the 1804 Silver Dollar

An 1804 silver dollar and an 1804 gold eagle (a $10 denomination), two rarities among many, are in this set of nine U.S. coins on loan from a private collector.

August 11, 1983 – February 9, 1984

American History Museum