Past Exhibitions

Heroes, Martyrs and Villains: Printed Portraits of the Civil War

View approximately 40 likenesses in an exhibition that illustrates how the patriotic printed portrait functioned as editorial, symbol, souvenir, and visual record.

September 10, 1982 – April 3, 1983

Portrait Gallery

Japanese Screens

See 6 pairs of narrative screens, including those depicting The Tale of Genji and The Emperor Hsuan-tsung and His Consort. The screens date from the 17th to the 19th centuries.

March 1, 1983 – March 31, 1983

Animation, Walter Lantz and Woody Woodpecker

Admire the original art work from the first film in which Woody Woodpecker appeared, a 1942 "Andy Panda" cartoon.

November 1, 1982 – March 31, 1983

Maritime Archaic Indians: Pioneers of the Labrador Coast

See tools and other artifacts highlighting the Maritime Archaic Indian cultures of the Labrador Coast and the work of Dr. William Fitzhugh, anthropologist.

August 17, 1982 – March 31, 1983

Hollywood Portrait Photographers 1921-1941

Delight in more than 110 photographs that document the art of the "golden era" of Hollywood portrait photographers.

February 3, 1983 – March 27, 1983

Portrait Gallery

Speaking a New Classicism: American Architecture Now

Learn through drawings, reproductions of drawings, photographs, models, and mock-ups how leading American architects are making use of decorative motifs from classical architecture.

January 28, 1983 – March 27, 1983

American Art Museum

Chinese Painting of the Wu and Che Schools

View works representative of the mainstream of painting in the Ming dynasty during the 16th century. Both schools strongly influenced subsequent Chinese paintings.

February 1, 1983 – March 15, 1983

"The Eight" and the Independent Tradition in American Art

Celebrate the 75th anniversary of the legendary Eight exhibition, America's first organized assault on academic art.

January 13, 1983 – March 15, 1983

Hirshhorn Museum

Saints & Laborers: Folk Figures as American Ideals of Service

Folk figures crafted in the 19th and 20th centuries present evidence of the use of figurines as daily reminders to working people of the importance of their own labor to society.

December 1, 1982 – March 3, 1983

Anacostia Community Museum

"Here, Look at Mine!" - John N. Robinson and Larry Francis Lebby Art Show

John N. Robinson, a painter, and Larry Francis Lebby, a stone lithographer, come from different generations and geographies. Yet, vital themes of family, neighbors, and the natural environment link the artists.

November 14, 1982 – February 28, 1983

1983 Zoo Employee Art Show

Animal-oriented art in various media is on display in this annual exhibition of works created by Zoo and FONZ employees.

February 1, 1983 – February 28, 1983

National Zoo

Mathematical Teaching Aids

Teaching aids from the nation's past include an early 19th-century cipher book, slates, geometric models, and more recent aids such as the B.F. Skinner prototype teaching machine, a slide rule, and a present-day hand-held calculator.

October 1, 1982 – February 28, 1983

U.S. World Helicopter Championships

View trophies and photographs of the United States Helicopter Team, which won the world championship competition in Poland in August 1981.

March 18, 1982 – February 28, 1983

Air and Space Museum

William Edmondson Sculpture

The Featured Acquisition of the Month: Crucifixion, an example of the black folk artist's mature work, is on view. Carved of limestone in the late 1930s, the piece is the gift of Elizabeth Gibbons-Hanson.

February 1, 1983 – February 28, 1983

American Art Museum

Fighting the White Plague: 75 Years of Christmas Seals

Trace the history of the fight against TB in this exhibit.

January 1, 1983 – February 28, 1983

Anacostia Community Museum

Sojourner Truth Doll

View a porcelain doll, 17 inches long, a finely detailed figure of abolitionist Sojourner Truth made by San Francisco artist Cecilia Rothman.

February 1, 1983 – February 28, 1983

American Picture Palaces

Revisit the grandeur of movie theaters built in the 1920s and 1930s through photos, posters, furnishings, and original artwork illustrating the extravagant architecture and sometimes gaudy designs of such buildings.

November 23, 1982 – February 27, 1983

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Black Women: Achievements Against the Odds

View twenty panels highlighting achievements of black women in 16 areas, such as education, politics, music, art, and sports.

February 1, 1983 – February 27, 1983

Synthetic Blues

See a hand-built, colored porcelain bowl created by Curtis and Suzan Benzle of Cleveland.

January 7, 1983 – February 27, 1983

Renwick Gallery

Joseph Cornell: An Exploration of Sources

View an exhibition that explores the visual and conceptual basis for Cornell's art with 50 boxes, collages, 3-D objects, dossiers, and designs on loan from private and public collections.

November 19, 1982 – February 27, 1983

American Art Museum

Black-tailed Deer: A Life Cycle

Follow the black-tailed deer's life cycle through 60 color photographs by Kenneth Herrington, most taken over the last 10 years on Herrington's Napa County, California, ranch.

December 23, 1982 – February 21, 1983

Chinese Art of the Warring States Period: Change and Continuity, 480-222 B.C.

See 151 examples of jade ornaments, lacquerware, bronze vessels and fittings, and other metalwork inlaid with gold and silver designs. Many of the objects have been re-dated, re-evaluated, or can be understood more fully because of new knowledge resulting from recent archaeological findings in the People's Republic of China.

October 1, 1982 – February 15, 1983

Boxed In: Japanese Ceramics and Their Storage Boxes

View 27 works from the Edo period (1616-1686), including teaware and other ceramic objects as well as the lacquer and wooden containers specially created for their safekeeping.

October 1, 1982 – February 14, 1983