Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

Selection of Korean Ceramics and Paintings from the Freer Collection

View more than 60 pieces of Korean ceramics, painting and metalwork, spanning the third century B.C. through the 19th century.

July 15, 1981 – September 15, 1981

Asian Art Museum, West Building

The Fleetwood Scroll Saw

Featured is a Fleetwood Scroll saw, designed for the amateur of the 1870s. Made of ornate cast iron and foot-powered, it allowed the user to produce detailed cabinetry.

July 17, 1981 – September 15, 1981

American History Museum

George Catlin: The Artist and the American Indian

Executed by Catlin between 1830 and 1848, the landscapes, portraits, and scenes of Indian life were intended to document a vanishing race for posterity.

June 5, 1981 – September 13, 1981

American Art Museum

Ancient Egyptian Art

View Egyptian glass vessels dating from the 15th to 10th centuries B.C. as well as a famous sculpture of a king wearing the White Crown of Upper Egypt (c. 2525 B.C.)

March 16, 1981 – September 7, 1981

Asian Art Museum, West Building

Costumes and Jewelry of the Maasai

See costumes, jewelry, dress, and accessories of the people of Kenya and parts of Tanzania.

July 1, 1981 – September 7, 1981

African Art Museum

Recent Acquisitions on View

See 2 significant purchases now on view: a painting by Joan Miro and a sculpture by Gaston Lachaise.

July 1, 1981 – August 31, 1981

Hirshhorn Museum

Selections from the Permanent Collection

View 450 objects, including sculpture, masks, jewelry, ceremonial costumes, and textiles.

June 26, 1980 – August 31, 1981

African Art Museum

The Animal Image: Contemporary Objects and the Beast

View both literal and fanciful representations of animals included in the 114 sculptural and functional objects on view by contemporary American artists and craftsmen.

March 13, 1981 – August 30, 1981

Renwick Gallery

A Renwick Bestiary

Admire and purchase animal images depicted on objects ranging from baskets, bowls, and furniture to toys, jewelry, mugs, molds, and rubber stamps.

June 19, 1981 – August 30, 1981

Renwick Gallery

California Condor Sculptures

See 3 life-size figures of the endangered California Condor, created by Erwin Hauer.

August 1, 1981 – August 28, 1981

National Zoo

How Fleeting Is Fame

Visit with some 19th-century lithographic portraits of celebrities of the period whose fame did not withstand the test of time.

February 6, 1981 – August 23, 1981

Portrait Gallery

Egypt Today: Embroidered Pictures from Akhmim

View 24 works created by contemporary craftsmen at Akhmim, a city which has flourished as a weaving center from some 4,000 years.

March 14, 1981 – August 23, 1981

Renwick Gallery

Gardens of Delight

See some 500 objects--ceramics, glass, silver, wallpaper, textiles, metalwork--and some 200 architectural drawings featuring gardens, real and imaginary .

June 9, 1981 – August 23, 1981

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Images of Labor

View 32 contemporary works of art that visually represent the issues and history of the American labor movement.

July 17, 1981 – August 21, 1981

American History Museum

American Porcelain: New Expressions in an Ancient Art

View 108 objects selected from work submitted by craftsmen in 40 states, including figurative and abstract sculpture, place settings of dinnerware, and vessels designed as an art form.

November 7, 1980 – August 16, 1981

Renwick Gallery

The Moving Image

See 100 examples of artwork created for use in the production of animated films, from virtually every major studio.

June 16, 1981 – August 16, 1981

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

High School Graphics VII

Enjoy the creativity of Washington area public, private and parochial school students who have created 156 prints for NMAA's "Discover Graphics" program.

May 3, 1981 – August 9, 1981

American Art Museum

Kenneth Snelson

The exhibition is a 20-year retrospective of the American sculptor's work and includes some 45 sculptures, drawings, maquettes, and panoramic photographs.

June 4, 1981 – August 9, 1981

Hirshhorn Museum

The Cooper-Hewitt Collection: Pottery

Take in a survey of the Cooper-Hewitt's collection of earthenware and stoneware--about 120 examples, dating from classical Greece to the present.

May 26, 1981 – August 9, 1981

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Galapagos: Born of the Sea

Feodor Pitcairn shares his fascination with the Galapagos Islands in an exhibition of approximately 40 of his photographs.

June 6, 1981 – August 2, 1981

Natural History Museum

The Red Cross Honored on Postage Stamps

In celebration of the centennial of the American Red Cross, see commemorative first-issue Red Cross stamps from more than 200 countries. The exhibition includes all U.S. Red Cross stamps as well as plate proofs.

May 15, 1981 – July 31, 1981

American History Museum

Strictly Hand-made

See tools, equipment, and creations of Albert Steigerwalt, an Andreas, Pennsylvania, craftsman,who persisted in stitching all-leather articles by hand until his death in 1944.

May 21, 1981 – July 31, 1981

American History Museum

Scenes of Contemporary Egypt

Ancient monuments as well as contemporary Egyptians and their activities are the subjects of approximately 50 color photographs by Donald and Betty Wiechec.

March 13, 1981 – July 30, 1981

Natural History Museum

Pre-Columbian Art

View 7 examples from the permanent collection and fragments from two Mayan Stalae (monoliths) on loan from the National Institute of Anthropology and History, Mexico.

August 1, 1980 – July 30, 1981

Hirshhorn Museum

Renaissance of Islam: Art of the Mamluks

See approximately 130 objects in the first major exhibition of Mamluk art to be shown in the U.S. The Mamluks, bodyguards of the 13th-century rulers of Egypt and Syria, rose to become one of the major dynasties of the Middle Ages, ruling the area for some 150 years.

May 15, 1981 – July 19, 1981

Natural History Museum