Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

Over the Top: American Posters from World War I

On view are 44 war bond posters from World War I, focusing on the four Liberty Loan campaigns, the War Savings Stamp program, the Victory Loan, and support for the American Red Cross.

October 26, 2007 – February 3, 2008

American Art Museum

Kindred Spirits: Asher B. Durand and the American Landscape

This retrospective of Asher B. Durand's work brings together 60 of the most beautiful and famous American landscape paintings of the 19th century.

September 14, 2007 – January 6, 2008

American Art Museum

Earl Cunningham's America

This retrospective of the work of Earl Cunningham (1893-1977) features 50 of the more than 400 canvases painted during his lifetime.

August 9, 2007 – November 3, 2007

American Art Museum

Sean Scully (b. 1945) is an internationally acclaimed artist who has been instrumental in reinvigorating abstraction over the past two decades. See the master set of his prints, the only complete set in an American museum.

May 18, 2007 – October 8, 2007

American Art Museum

Variations on America: Masterworks from American Art Forum Collections

Visit an exhibition featuring approximately 75 major oil paintings, sculptures, and works on paper by leading artists from the past 150 years.

April 13, 2007 – July 29, 2007

American Art Museum

Passing Time: The Art of William Christenberry

Visit more than 60 paintings, photographs, assemblages, and sculpted building constructions by William Christenberry.

June 30, 2006 – July 7, 2007

American Art Museum

Saul Steinberg: Illuminations

Enjoy 120 works on paper and board, paintings, sculpture, and other objects by Saul Steinberg.

April 6, 2007 – June 24, 2007

American Art Museum

Eadweard Muybridge: The Central American Journey

Follow more than 60 photographs taken by Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904) in Central America, particularly Panama and Guatemala, that document the birth of the coffee industry, scenic ruins, and contemporary life.

February 2, 2007 – April 29, 2007

American Art Museum

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

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

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

William Wegman: Funny/Strange

Enjoy William Wegman's smart, gently subversive humor that parodies all things familiar in this exhibition featuring 200 works in a variety of media -- from photographs and paintings to conceptual works and videos.

July 1, 2006 – September 24, 2006

American Art Museum

American ABC: Childhood in 19th-Century America

Explore images of children and their relationship to the American quest for national identity during the 19th century through works by American painters.

June 30, 2006 – September 16, 2006

American Art Museum

Wall of Expression

This mural, painted by staff and artists from the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery, commemorates the tragedies of Sept. 11, 2001.

December 1, 2001 – January 11, 2006

American Art Museum

African American Masters: Highlights from the Smithsonian American Art Museum

This exhibition includes 61 paintings, sculptures, and photographs focusing on the rich and varied experience of African American artists in the 20th century.

April 1, 2003 – May 3, 2005

American Art Museum

Graphic Masters: Highlights from the Smithsonian American Art Museum

This exhibition features 75 watercolors, pastels, and drawings from the 1860s through the 1990s that reveal the central importance of works on paper for American artists, both as studies for creations in other media and as finished works of art.

September 13, 2003 – December 28, 2004

American Art Museum

The Land through a Lens: Highlights from the Smithsonian American Art Museum

This exhibition includes 85 photographs from the 1850s through the 20th century that trace America's fascination with the land and the way artists transform it into symbols and signature images.

May 20, 2003 – December 26, 2004

American Art Museum

Calico & Chintz: Early American Quilts from the Smithsonian American Art Museum

This exhibition features 22 rare pieced and whole-cloth American quilts made before 1850 from the collection of Patricia A. Smith, a Washington playwright and quilt historian.

December 16, 2003 – November 21, 2004

American Art Museum

Masters of Their Craft: Highlights from the Smithsonian American Art Museum

This exhibition features 50 artworks in clay, fiber, glass, metal, and wood that illuminate the vast creative spirit that is the hallmark of contemporary crafts.

September 13, 2003 – October 24, 2004

American Art Museum

Young America: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum

Trace the transformation from colonies to nationhood from about 1760 to the decade after the Civil War in this exhibition.