Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

Nine Deaths, Two Births: Xu Bing's Phoenix Project

See how Xu Bing's Phoenix Project -- his newest sculpture on view at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) -- evolved through drawings, scale models, and construction fragments.

April 27, 2013 – September 2, 2013

Asian Art Museum, East Building

A Will of Their Own: Judith Sargent Murray and Women of Achievement in the Early Republic

Learn about the achievements of women in the late 18th century and see portraits of eight prominent American women of the period.

April 20, 2012 – September 2, 2013

Portrait Gallery

I Want the Wide American Earth: An Asian Pacific American Story

Learn about the diverse cultures and complex history of Asian Pacific Americans from the first immigrants centuries ago to the challenges they face today. Note: Off view July 23 and 24, 2013.

May 1, 2013 – August 25, 2013

American History Museum

Korean Tea Bowls for Japan

View Korean tea bowls that were favored in the Japanese avant-garde tea ceremony known as wabicha.

July 1, 2012 – August 20, 2013

Asian Art Museum, West Building

Portraiture Now: Drawing on the Edge

Explore the boundaries that once defined drawing and portraiture through the works of contemporary artists.

November 16, 2012 – August 18, 2013

Portrait Gallery

Hand-held: Gerhard Pulverer's Japanese Illustrated Books

Learn how illustrated books (ehon) in Edo-period Japan (1615-1868) were similar to blogging and e-publications in the 21st century.

April 6, 2013 – August 11, 2013

Asian Art Museum, East Building

Up Where We Belong: Native Musicians in Popular Culture

This banner exhibition highlights Native people who have been active participants in contemporary music for nearly a century.

August 4, 2012 – August 11, 2013

American Indian Museum New York

Nam June Paik: Global Visionary

This exhibition offers an unprecedented view into artist Nam June Paik's creative method.

December 13, 2012 – August 11, 2013

American Art Museum

Poetic License: Making Old Words New

Discover how the merchant and artisan classes during the Edo period in Japan reinterpreted classical Japanese and Chinese literary themes.

February 2, 2013 – August 4, 2013

Asian Art Museum, West Building

Edo Aviary

See how artists in the Edo period were inspired by natural history paintings to depict birds more accurately.

February 2, 2013 – August 4, 2013

Asian Art Museum, West Building

Black Box: DEMOCRACIA

View DEMOCRACIA's video project Ser y Durar [To Be and to Last] about a group of traceurs performing parkour in a Madrid cemetery.

October 29, 2012 – August 4, 2013

Hirshhorn Museum

Thomas Day: Master Craftsman and Free Man of Color

See furniture produced by Thomas Day, a free African American who owned and operated one of North Carolina’s most successful cabinet shops before the Civil War.

April 12, 2013 – July 28, 2013

Renwick Gallery

Reinventing the Wheel: Japanese Ceramics 1930-2000

Modern and contemporary Japanese ceramics by Living National Treasures to young virtuosos are featured in this installation.

July 23, 2011 – July 12, 2013

Asian Art Museum, East Building

The Evolving Universe

Full-color photographs capture the awe-inspiring beauty of the cosmos as seen through high-powered terrestrial and orbiting telescopes.

October 21, 2011 – July 9, 2013

Natural History Museum

One Man's Search for Ancient China: The Paul Singer Collection

Learn how new discoveries shed light on psychiatrist and scholar Paul Singer's collection of Chinese archaeological objects and on ancient life in China.

January 19, 2013 – July 7, 2013

Asian Art Museum, East Building

Experience Civil War Photography: From the Home Front to the Battlefront

See stereo-view (3-D) photographs from the Civil War to learn how Americans experienced the conflict.

August 1, 2012 – July 7, 2013

Smithsonian Castle

Pictures in the Parlor

Learn how the introduction of photography in the United States allowed middle-class families to display their values, aspirations, and achievements.

February 1, 2013 – July 7, 2013

American Art Museum

C.Maxx Stevens: House of Memory

See how this contemporary artist addresses memory through cultural and personal symbols.

December 1, 2012 – June 16, 2013

American Indian Museum New York

Celluloid: The First Plastic

A range of objects made from celluloid, the world's first commercially successful plastic, are highlighted in this case.

June 1, 2010 – June 13, 2013

American History Museum

A Day at the Museum

Learn about the role of museums in the everyday lives of American artists.

January 14, 2013 – June 2, 2013

Archives of American Art

Ambrotypes from the National Portrait Gallery

Ambrotypes from the museum's collection include personalities from the Civil War era.

May 25, 2012 – June 2, 2013

Portrait Gallery

One Life: Amelia Earhart

Portraits of aviator Amelia Earhart tell the story of her career and pay special attention to her work on behalf of women's rights.

June 29, 2012 – May 27, 2013

Portrait Gallery

Out of the Ordinary

Discover how the processes of copying, faking, and duplicating as strategic artistic invention can result in objects that are both recognizable and strange.

February 4, 2013 – May 27, 2013

Hirshhorn Museum

Not Lost in Translation: The Life of Clotilde Arias

Learn about the life and times of Clotilde Arias, who was commissioned by the US State Department to compose an official Spanish-language translation of the national anthem.

September 27, 2012 – May 12, 2013

American History Museum

The Cyrus Cylinder and Ancient Persia: A New Beginning

View the iconic Cyrus cylinder along with objects showcasing innovations of the Achaemenid Empire (550-330 BC) of Iran that had a huge impact on the ancient world.

March 9, 2013 – April 28, 2013

Asian Art Museum, East Building