Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

1982 Zoo Employee Art Show

Enjoy animal-oriented works in a variety of media--from pottery to pencil through photography--submitted by Zoo and FONZ personnel and volunteers.

March 1, 1982 – March 31, 1982

National Zoo

Be My Valentine

Enjoy approximately 40 Valentine cards from the mid-19th to the early 20th century.

January 1, 1982 – March 31, 1982

American History Museum

The Art of the Fine Press Book

See Fine Press books and examples of fine printing, including limited editions

January 25, 1982 – March 31, 1982

American History Museum

Starfishes of the Atlantic Ocean

Take in the first comprehensive study of starfish found in the Atlantic Ocean with starfish, photographs, maps, and related publications.

September 15, 1981 – March 31, 1982

Natural History Museum

Good As Gold: Alternative Materials in American Jewelry

View 180 brooches, necklaces, and other body decorations made from glass, plastic, paper, wood, "found objects," and metals -- aluminum, brass, steel, bronze, niobium, and titanium.

December 3, 1981 – March 28, 1982

Renwick Gallery

Recent Trends in Collecting: 20th-Century Painting and Sculpture from NMAA

This major exhibition of 130 contemporary works is designed to show the range and breadth of the museum's collection of 20th-century works.

February 12, 1982 – March 28, 1982

American Art Museum

Alternatives to Gold

Admire and purchase jewelry created by artists whose work is included in current exhibit, Good as Gold: Alternative Materials in American Jewelry.

December 2, 1981 – March 28, 1982

Renwick Gallery

See a retrospective exhibition of 150 glass works, supplemented by color photographs, a set of glassblower's tools and bench, and panels illustrating processes made famous by Paolo Venini, founder of the glass manufactory on the island of Murano.

August 21, 1981 – March 21, 1982

Renwick Gallery

A Life in Art: Alma W. Thomas, 1891-1978

The 47 paintings, sculpture, and works on paper survey the career of Alma Thomas who, following many years as a teacher in the Washington public schools, began to paint when she was in her sixties and became nationally known for her abstractions.

November 26, 1981 – March 21, 1982

American Art Museum

Five Enamelists from Tallahassee

Admire and purchase bowls created by Patricia Bergstraesser, Teresa Coates, Edward Deren, Michael Williams, and Mary Kautz.

February 1, 1982 – March 14, 1982

Renwick Gallery

The American Red Cross: A Century of Humanitarian Progress 1881-1981

This commemorative exhibition features an ambulance used by Clara Barton, her desk, Florence Nightingale's shawl, and other historical artifacts from SI collections and on loan from the National Archives and the American Red Cross.

May 15, 1981 – March 14, 1982

American History Museum

European Abstraction: Works on Paper from the Collection

View 38 small-scale works by 23 artists in many different media. Not intended as a survey, the works reflect the diverse, personal, abstract painting and drawing styles many European artists developed.

January 28, 1982 – March 7, 1982

Hirshhorn Museum

In Small Stages: Puppets from the Cooper-Hewitt Collection

See antique and 20th-century examples of puppets from the East and the West, featuring a group designed and made by Frank and Elizabeth Haines, noted American puppeteers.

December 15, 1981 – March 7, 1982

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Life...Afterlife: African Funerary Sculpture

See more than 100 pieces of funerary sculpture from all regions of Africa showing how art is used in African funerals to express concepts of life, death, and the continual cycle of existence.

November 19, 1981 – March 1, 1982

African Art Museum

Elijah Pierce: Messages in Wood

Visit 15 carved wood panels, painted in bold colors, depicting religious themes and parables, created by Elijah Pierce, a Columbus, Ohio, barber and Baptist minister.

December 1, 1981 – February 28, 1982

Renwick Gallery

The Culture of Bali

See colorful masks, shadow puppets, and Balinese cloth in conjunction with a DPA World Explorer Series program.

January 1, 1982 – February 28, 1982

Natural History Museum

Metaphor: New Projects by Contemporary Sculptors

Large-scale works by several contemporary artists were executed especially for this exhibit. The show highlights a significant artistic trend among many contemporary sculptors: the use of metaphor and allegory as organizing principles in contemporary sculpture.

December 17, 1981 – February 28, 1982

Hirshhorn Museum

Mathematical Activities in 18th-Century America: Benjamin Banneker

This exhibition commemorates the 250th anniversary, November 9, of the birth of Benjamin Banneker, scientist, mathematician, and free black man, who worked with Andrew Ellicott to survey the federal city.

November 10, 1981 – February 28, 1982

American History Museum

Five Distinguished Alumni: The WPA Federal Art Project

This exhibition commemorates the centennial of FDR's birth.

January 21, 1982 – February 22, 1982

Hirshhorn Museum

Puppets: Art and Entertainment

See more than 230 puppets and related items in an exhibit which spans 800 years of puppetry in North America.

December 15, 1981 – February 21, 1982

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Perkins Harnly: From the Index of American Design

Discover 29 watercolors of domestic, industrial, and commercial Victorian and early 20th-century interiors executed during the 1930s and 1940s. Most were created for the WPA Federal Art Project's Index of American Design (now in permanent collection of NGA).

October 16, 1981 – February 15, 1982

American Art Museum

Botanical Prints by Henry Evans

Enjoy 40 works by one of America's best known botanical printmakers. Self-taught as a printer, botanist, and artist, Evans' botanical prints are distinguished by a unique style and technique.

December 12, 1981 – February 7, 1982

Natural History Museum

The Imperial Image: Painting for the Mughal Court

See 74 works from 1560-1640, considered the most important period of Islamic art in India.

September 25, 1981 – January 31, 1982

Asian Art Museum, West Building

Pottery by Maria Martinez

See 2 bowls by the celebrated American Indian potter, who is associated with a distinctive black pottery.

December 1, 1981 – January 31, 1982

Renwick Gallery

Nikola Tesla, Inventor and Electrical Engineer

Nikola Tesla, American inventor, is best known for his development of polyphase alternating current, the system now used worldwide. On view are pictures of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, where Tesla first presented his system to the public.

October 15, 1981 – January 31, 1982

American History Museum