Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

The Great American Hall of Wonders

This exhibition examines the American ingenuity that energized all aspects of 19th-century society, from the painting of landscapes and scenes of everyday life to the planning of scientific expeditions and the development of new mechanical devices.

July 15, 2011 – January 8, 2012

American Art Museum

Made in Chicago: The Koffler Collection

See 26 works of art dating from 1960 to 1980.

August 12, 2011 – January 2, 2012

American Art Museum

To Make a World: George Ault and 1940s America

The exhibition features approximately 50 paintings, drawings, and photographs by Ault and his contemporaries, including the well-known artists Edward Hopper and Andrew Wyeth, as well as recently rediscovered painters Edward Biberman and Dede Plummer.

March 11, 2011 – September 5, 2011

American Art Museum

Close to Home: Photographers and Their Families

This exhibition presents 32 color and black-and-white photographs from the museum's permanent collection made during the past three decades by nine established and emerging artists: Tina Barney, Virginia Beahan, Christopher Dawson, Muriel Hasbun, Martina Lopez, Elaine O'Neil, Larry Sultan, Margaret Strickland, and Carrie Will.

February 4, 2011 – July 24, 2011

American Art Museum

Alexis Rockman: A Fable for Tomorrow

This first major survey of the work of Alexis Rockman (b. 1962) features approximately 50 paintings and works on paper to trace the artist's development from the mid-1980s to the present.

November 19, 2010 – May 8, 2011

American Art Museum

John Gossage: The Pond

Gossage's photographs of a small pond in Maryland reveal moments of grace and elegance in a seemingly mundane place and recall Henry David Thoreau's Walden.

August 27, 2010 – January 17, 2011

American Art Museum

Telling Stories: Norman Rockwell from the Collections of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg

This exhibition showcases 57 major Rockwell paintings and drawings from the private collections of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.

July 2, 2010 – January 2, 2011

American Art Museum

Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Remembering the "Running Fence"

Some 50 preparatory drawings and collages, along with photos and other media, document the creation and installation of this epic project.

April 2, 2010 – September 26, 2010

American Art Museum

Graphic Masters III: Highlights from the Smithsonian American Art Museum

View watercolors, pastels, and drawings from the 1960s to the 1990s that illustrate the extraordinary variety and accomplishment of works on paper by American artists.

January 15, 2010 – August 8, 2010

American Art Museum

Framing the West: The Survey Photographs of Timothy H. O'Sullivan

These 80 photographs of Timothy H. O'Sullivan (1840-1882), photographer for government-sponsored geological surveys and expeditions, go beyond mere documentation of newly explored landscapes; they show a forthright and rigorous style formed in response to the American West.

February 12, 2010 – May 9, 2010

American Art Museum

What's It All Mean: William T. Wiley in Retrospect

Enter the world of artist William T. Wiley (b. 1937), who has created a distinctive body of work during a 50-year career that addresses critical issues of our time.

October 2, 2009 – January 24, 2010

American Art Museum

The Honor of Your Company Is Requested: President Lincoln's Inaugural Ball

On view in this small exhibition to celebrate Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural ball is ephemera from the ball, including the invitation and menu, as well as engravings illustrating the night's events and other artifacts.

March 8, 2008 – January 18, 2010

American Art Museum

Graphic Masters II: Highlights from the Smithsonian American Art Museum

Visit watercolors, pastels, and drawings from the 1920s to the 1960s to celebrate the extraordinary variety and accomplishment of American artists' works on paper.

June 19, 2009 – January 10, 2010

American Art Museum

1934: A New Deal for Artists

See 56 paintings created by artists from across the United States working under the Public Works of Art Program, a federal New Deal program that lasted only six months from mid-December 1933 to June 1934.

February 27, 2009 – January 3, 2010

American Art Museum

Jean Shin: Common Threads

Jean Shin employs a meticulous process of dismantling, altering, and reconstructing discarded and worn materials -- such as old shoes, lost socks, lottery tickets, and broken umbrellas -- to create textural installations that give new form to life's leftovers.

May 1, 2009 – July 26, 2009

American Art Museum

Graphic Masters I: Highlights from the Smithsonian American Art Museum

Enjoy watercolors, pastels, and drawings from the early 19th century through the 1930s to celebrate the extraordinary variety and accomplishment of American artists' works on paper.

November 27, 2008 – May 25, 2009

American Art Museum

Accommodating Nature: The Photographs of Frank Gohlke

Fascinated with nature's proclivities for growth, destruction, and unexpected change, Golke captures the tension between humanity and nature and explores how Americans build their lives in a natural world that rarely fits within a traditional pastoral ideal.

November 27, 2008 – March 3, 2009

American Art Museum

Georgia O'Keeffe and Ansel Adams: Natural Affinities

This exhibition features 42 paintings by Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986) and 54 photographs by Ansel Adams (1902-1984) that reveal their deep commitment to the American landscape.

September 26, 2008 – January 4, 2009

American Art Museum

Earth and Sky: Photographs by Barbara Bosworth

View more than 40 photographs by Barbara Bosworth (b.1953), including The Bitterroot River, a series that deals with loss and recovery, and recent color photographs of songbirds and the New England landscape surrounding her home near Boston, Massachusetts.

June 20, 2008 – November 11, 2008

American Art Museum

Local Color: Washington Painting at Mid-Century

See 27 large-scale, luminous, abstract paintings from the museum's permanent collection dating from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s by Washington D.C.-based artists.

July 4, 2008 – October 13, 2008

American Art Museum

Aaron Douglas: African American Modernist

View more than 80 rarely seen works by Aaron Douglas (1899-1979) -- one of the foremost visual artists from the Harlem Renaissance -- including paintings, prints, drawings, and illustrations, in addition to works by several of his contemporaries.

May 9, 2008 – August 3, 2008

American Art Museum

Celebrating the Lucelia Artist Award, 2001-2006

This exhibition features works by each of the previous winners of the Lucelia Artist Award.

September 21, 2007 – June 22, 2008

American Art Museum

Obata's Yosemite

During a visit to Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada in 1927, Obata made approximately 100 drawings in pencil, watercolor, and sumi ink. While in Tokyo between 1928 and 1932, he transformed these California landscape watercolors and sketches into a limited-edition portfolio titled World Landscape Series, shown here for the first time on the East Coast.

February 22, 2008 – June 1, 2008

American Art Museum

Color as Field: American Painting, 1950-1975

A Color Field painting is characterized by pouring, staining, spraying, or painting thinned paint onto raw canvas to create vast chromatic expanses. See examples by major figures of this movement, which constitutes one of the crowning achievements of postwar American abstract art.

February 29, 2008 – May 26, 2008

American Art Museum

John Alexander: A Retrospective

This retrospective of the works of neo-expressionist artist John Alexander is the first full-scale examination of the artist's three-decade career.

December 21, 2007 – March 16, 2008

American Art Museum