Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2006

This exhibition features the work of the 51 artists selected as finalists in the country's first national portrait competition.

July 1, 2006 – February 19, 2007

Portrait Gallery

Joseph Cornell: Navigating the Imagination

Take in a retrospective that features 200 of his finest boxes, collages, objects, dossiers, films, and graphic designs borrowed from public and private collections around the world.

November 17, 2006 – February 19, 2007

American Art Museum

ItuKiagatta! Inuit Sculpture

When the fur trade collapsed, Inuit families throughout the Canadian Arctic had to abandon their nomadic traditions, more to towns, and learn another way of life. With limited opportunities, many Inuit hunter-trappers became renowned carvers.

November 11, 2006 – February 4, 2007

American Indian Museum New York

An Impressionist Sensibility: The Halff Collection

See paintings by such legendary Gilded-age American artists as William Merritt Chase, Childe Hassam, Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, and John Twachtman.

November 3, 2006 – February 4, 2007

American Art Museum

Science in the News: Ivory-Billed Woodpecker

A presumably extinct bird, the ivory-billed woodpecker, Campephilus principalis, was reportedly rediscovered in 2004.

April 10, 2006 – January 31, 2007

Natural History Museum

Luxury Arts of the Silk Route Empires

Follow the ancient Silk Route, an exchange network linking the continent of Asia two thousand years before today's global economy.

May 9, 1993 – January 28, 2007

Asian Art Museum, West Building

Luxury Arts of the Silk Route Empires

Explore the rich artistic interactions that resulted from commercial ties along the Silk Route in this collection of luxury possessions.

May 9, 1993 – January 28, 2007

Asian Art Museum, East Building

Resonance from the Past: African Sculpture from the New Orleans Museum of Art

See approximately 85 traditional sculpted art works, including masks, figures, musical instruments, ceramics, fabric, and beaded costumes from the New Orleans Museum of Art.

October 5, 2006 – January 28, 2007

African Art Museum

R.C. Gorman: Early Prints and Drawings, 1966-1974

On view are 28 drawings and lithographs by Navajo artist R. C. Gorman (1931-2005), featuring both his well-known works of monumental women and Indian "madonnas" and his lesser-known prints.

September 16, 2006 – January 28, 2007

American Indian Museum New York

Fountains of Light: Islamic Metalwork from the Nuhad Es-Said Collection

Visit a group of 27 inlaid precious metal objects from the Nuhad Es-Said Collection, considered one of the finest collections of Islamic metalwork in private hands.

January 15, 2005 – January 21, 2007

Asian Art Museum, East Building

Colombia at the Smithsonian: Colombian Presence in the Collections of the Smithsonian Institution

Enjoy approximately 80 rarely-seen objects and artworks selected from the Smithsonian's varied collections that reflect Colombia's rich artistic, historic, cultural, and natural heritage.

September 6, 2006 – January 17, 2007

Smithsonian Castle

Ruth Duckworth, Modernist Sculptor

View approximately 80 of Duckworth's ceramic works, including wall reliefs, freestanding sculpture, and sculptural vessels.

September 1, 2006 – January 15, 2007

Renwick Gallery

In the Beginning: Bibles Before the Year 1000

See many of the most important codices in the world from the 2nd to 10th centuries.

October 21, 2006 – January 7, 2007

Asian Art Museum, East Building

Earth from Space

See precise, up-to-date images captured by high-tech satellites, used by geologists, meteorologists, and other scientists to study how the Earth changes from day to day and year to year.

November 11, 2006 – January 7, 2007

Air and Space Museum

William H. Johnson's World on Paper

Never-before-exhibited prints reveal African American modernist painter William H. Johnson (1901-1970) to be a powerful graphic artist.

June 30, 2006 – January 7, 2007

American Art Museum

The Uncertainty of Objects and Ideas: Recent Sculpture

Visit an exhibition featuring freestanding sculptures recently created by 9 international contemporary artists of different generations.

October 26, 2006 – January 7, 2007

Hirshhorn Museum

In the Line of Duty: Dangers, Disasters, and Good Deeds

This exhibition surveys the dangers faced by the nation's postal workers, honors their individual acts of heroism, and celebrates the U.S. Postal Service's involvement in a program that distributes pictures of missing children to tens of millions of homes each week.

October 8, 2003 – January 2, 2007

Postal Museum

Listening to Our Ancestors: The Art of Native Life along the North Pacific Coast

See more than 400 ceremonial and everyday objects that present the art and culture of the people of the Northwest Coast , featuring 11 Native communities from Washington state, British Columbia, and Alaska.

February 3, 2006 – January 2, 2007

American Indian Museum DC

Freer and Tea: Raku, Hagi, Karatsu

This exhibition showcases 14 tea ceremony ceramics that Freer collected by 1906.

July 1, 2006 – January 1, 2007

Asian Art Museum, West Building

Freer: A Taste of Japanese Art

See a selection of 31 paintings, calligraphy, wood sculpture, lacquer, and ceramics from the 8th-19th centuries from Freer's Japanese art collection.

July 1, 2006 – January 1, 2007

Asian Art Museum, West Building

Greenland Research: Rasmussen's Circumpolar Research

See objects from the museum's collection dealing with the fifth expedition Knud Rasmussen (1879-1933) took from Thule, in northern Greenland, to Alaska (1921-1924). Objects include snow goggles, handmade dolls by indigenous peoples, and miniature models of wooden sleds.

May 20, 2005 – December 14, 2006

Natural History Museum

Black Box: Jesper Just

See two films by Jesper Just; dark, vivid dreamscapes about shifts in power and loss of control.

August 23, 2006 – December 10, 2006

Hirshhorn Museum

First Look: The Walt Disney-Tishman African Art Collection

See a display of 23 works made of wood, ivory, and beadwork from the Walt Disney-Tishman African Art Collection.

May 17, 2006 – December 3, 2006

African Art Museum

Destination Anywhere: VSA Arts 5th Annual National Juried Exhibition for Young Artists with Disabilities

View 15 artworks that reflect the experiences of young artists with disabilities and reveal how those disabilities shape or transform the artists' lives and ultimate destinations.

September 28, 2006 – November 30, 2006

Ripley Center

Our Priceless Heritage: Snapshots in Time from America's Public Lands

See some 20 photographs with accompanying text that highlight the significance of our land and its resources and share how we can protect our heritage.

September 1, 2006 – November 30, 2006

Ripley Center