Past Exhibitions

Jacob Kainen, Five Decades As a Painter

Mark Kainen's 70th birthday and survey his career as a painter with these 19 oils.

December 7, 1979 – January 6, 1980

Sculpture and the Federal Triangle

Examine 100 architectural drawings, preliminary drawings and models, and photographs that document the collaboration of architects, builders, sculptors, and craftsmen who designed and executed the decoration of 7 buildings in the Capital's "Federal Triangle."

October 26, 1979 – January 6, 1980

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Robert Edge Pine: A British Portrait Painter in America

See 38 paintings of Americans painted by the English artist in America, 1784-1788.

November 1, 1979 – January 6, 1980

Portrait Gallery

Smithsonian Museum Collections: A Selection

View natural and man-made objects selected from Smithsonian collections to illustrate various design themes.

September 11, 1979 – January 6, 1980

1979 Trees of Christmas

This holiday exhibition returns with 13 decorated trees.

December 14, 1979 – January 2, 1980

The Afro-American Tradition in Decorative Arts

The survival and development of African tradition in the United States is shown through crafts.

October 18, 1979 – January 1, 1980

The Eskimo Narrative

See contemporary Inuit art from the Winnipeg Art Gallery of Manitoba, Canada.

October 1, 1979 – December 31, 1979

Anacostia Community Museum

Children of South Africa

View 21 photographs by contemporary photo-journalist Peter Magubane.

October 15, 1979 – December 31, 1979

The Working Woman

View 20 photographs depicting Native American women weaving rugs, herding sheep, coiling pottery, making baskets and gathering berries.

August 1, 1979 – December 31, 1979

Dance Masks of Mexico

View 180 masks and selected instruments from the recently acquired Donald Cordry collection, considered one of the most extensive and best documented of its kind.

February 23, 1979 – December 31, 1979

Fernando Botero: A Retrospective Exhibition

Visit 66 works, often parodies of "official" art, in the first American retrospective to honor Botero, a 47-year-old Colombian artist currently living in Paris.

January 1, 1980 – December 20, 1979

Anne Brancato Wood

View clothing and memorabilia of the first woman member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.

November 1, 1979 – December 15, 1979

Whiskey Rebels

See the instrument used by Federal tax collectors to measure the alcohol content of whiskey in a small exhibit about the Pennsylvania Whiskey Rebellion of 1794.

June 15, 1979 – December 9, 1979

Portrait Gallery

Prints for the People: Selections from New Deal Graphics Projects

See 67 lithographs, etchings, woodcuts and screen prints that focus on the New York print workshop of the Works Projects Administration of the 1930s.

September 14, 1979 – December 2, 1979

John Paul Remensnyder Collection of American Stoneware

Approximately 150 selections from the collection trace the history of stoneware made in mid-Atlantic and northeastern U.S. pottery mills from the first half of the 18th century through 19th century industrialization.

November 18, 1978 – November 30, 1979

Murals Without Walls: Arshile Gorky's Newark Airport Murals Rediscovered

Take in two large panels created for the Neward Airport in 1936-37 as a WPA project. Titled Aviation, the ten-panel series was the subject of considerable controversy and was subsequently painted over and presumed lost.

October 4, 1979 – November 25, 1979

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

The Cooper-Hewitt Collections: Glass

View approximately 125 examples that document the art of glassmaking, with emphasis on techniques used to form and decorate glass.

August 28, 1979 – November 25, 1979

Arshile Gorky: The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Collection

Visit the first public showing of the Hirshhorn Museum's entire collection of 21 paintings and 8 drawings by Gorky (1904-1948), whose work bridged Surrealism and early Abstract Expressionism.

October 4, 1979 – November 25, 1979

Eminent Figures from the American Catholic Religious Tradition

In conjunction with the Papal visit, see portraits of notable American Catholics.

October 8, 1979 – November 22, 1979

Smithsonian Castle

David Smith: The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Collection

See 26 sculptures, 3 paintings and 3 drawings from the HMSG collection, one of the largest in the U.S.

July 28, 1979 – November 18, 1979

The Art of Russia, 1800-1850

View 145 Russian paintings and graphics as well as 21 examples of complementary decorative art, most of which have never been shown in the West.

August 3, 1979 – November 12, 1979

Renwick Gallery

The Geological Art of William Henry Holmes

See drawings and paintings by W.H. Holmes, geologist, artist, archeologist and administrator (1846-1933), who had an extraordinary career at the U.S. Geological Survey and the Smithsonian Institution.

September 15, 1979 – November 11, 1979

Images of Children

Enjoy 32 works that comprise a special installation from the HMSG collection in honor of the International Year of the Child, focusing on images of children by artists of the late 19th and 20th centuries.

August 17, 1979 – November 4, 1979