Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

Recent Acquisitions

View recent acquisitions celebrating the rich visual traditions and diverse cultures of Africa.

April 15, 2001 – October 7, 2001

In the Presence of Spirits: African Art from the National Museum of Ethnology, Lisbon

See an exhibition that examines more than 140 objects reflecting the influences of the supernatural world in both public and private life throughout sub-Saharan Africa.

June 10, 2001 – September 16, 2001

African Art Museum

Audible Artworks: Selected African Musical Instruments

See and hear a selection of musical instruments that demonstrate the formal inventiveness of African artists who have created objects that are a delight to both the ears and eyes.

June 25, 2000 – April 8, 2001

African Art Museum

Identity of the Sacred: Two Nigerian Shrine Figures

View two wooden sculptures -- one Igbo, the other Urhobo -- representing tutelary deities and ancestors found in two societies of southeastern Nigeria

September 24, 2000 – April 2, 2001

African Art Museum

Chant Avedissian: A Contemporary Artist of Egypt

See a series of panels begun in 1991 by the preeminent contemporary Egyptian artist Chant Avedissian relating to current and historical Egyptian images, both representational and symbolic.

November 19, 2000 – February 19, 2001

African Art Museum

A Concrete Vision: Oshogbo Art in the 1960s

View works by 11 Nigerian artists of the Oshogbo Movement, center of a major artistic renaissance.

January 23, 2000 – October 22, 2000

African Art Museum

Transatlantic Dialogue: Contemporary Art In and Out of Africa

View some 40 works by 16 artists that explore a dialogue between African artists who have traveled in the West and African American artists who have traveled in West Africa.

May 21, 2000 – September 3, 2000

African Art Museum

The Artistry of African Currency

View an exhibition that features various objects and related paraphernalia that have been used across Africa to facilitate trade and measure wealth.

March 12, 2000 – July 23, 2000

African Art Museum

Celebrating Our New Collection Catalogue

View seven objects--a vessel, mask, staff, and figures--taken from the permanent collection and featured in the new catalogue Selected Work From the Collection of the National Museum of African Art.

February 10, 2000 – May 26, 2000

African Art Museum

Recent Acquisitions

View 11 new acquisitions, including masks and figures from Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

May 15, 1999 – February 9, 2000

African Art Museum

Wrapped in Pride: Ghanaian Kente and African American Identity

View an exhibition examining the history and use of traditional kente cloth in Ghana and exploring the impact contemporary kente production has had in other African countries and the United States.

September 12, 1999 – January 2, 2000

African Art Museum

Hats Off! A Salute to African Headwear

This exhibit pays tribute to the artists who make African headwear and the status and prestige given to those who wear these creations.

July 18, 1999 – December 26, 1999

African Art Museum

Claiming Art/Reclaiming Space: Post-Apartheid Art from South Africa

View paintings, prints, and animated film shorts by South African Artists drawn from the museum's permanent collection.

June 20, 1999 – September 26, 1999

African Art Museum

Sokari Douglas Camp: Church Ede, A Tribute to Her Father

View an exhibition that showcases the work of Nigerian artist Sokari Douglas Camp (b. 1958). The artist has created figurative works in steel that evoke memories of her youth in southeastern Nigeria.

March 21, 1999 – June 20, 1999

African Art Museum

Baule: African Art/Western Eyes

See more than 150 works that present the range of objects created by the Baule artists from Cote d'Ivoire, West Africa.

February 7, 1999 – May 9, 1999

African Art Museum

South Africa 1936-1949: Photographs by Constance Stuart Larrabee

See 79 black and white images taken by Larrabee (b. 1914) in the '30s and '40s that document the lives of African peoples in both rural and urban settings.

September 20, 1998 – February 28, 1999

African Art Museum

African Forms in the Furniture of Pierre Legrain

See an exhibition that explores the influence African chairs and stools had on the work of French artist Pierre Legrain (1889-1929), who is credited as one of the founders of the Art Deco style.

August 16, 1998 – November 29, 1998

African Art Museum

Olowe of Ise: A Yoruba Sculptor to Kings

View 35 major works by Olowe of Ise (c. 1873-1938), who was commissioned to make sculpture for several Ekiti-Yoruba kings.

March 10, 1998 – September 7, 1998

African Art Museum

The Grand Mankala Game

See 6 mankala game boards.

May 28, 1998 – May 27, 1998

African Art Museum

The Poetics of Line: Seven Artists of the Nsukka Group, Nigeria

View 64 paintings, drawings, prints, wood sculptures, & mixed-media works, dating from the 1960s to the present, by 7 Nigerian artists.

October 22, 1997 – April 26, 1998

African Art Museum

A Spiral of History: A Carved Tusk from the Loango Coast, Congo

View a 19th-century carved ivory tusk dthat depicts historical, ceremonial, anecdotal, and daily events, spiraling from the base to the tip.

February 1, 1998 – April 26, 1998

African Art Museum

Gifts to the National Collection of African Art

See the 10th-anniversary exhibition features newly acquired classical African art from the 19th and 20th centuries, honoring the collection-building legacy of Sylvia H. Williams, who was the museum's director from 1983-1996.

September 16, 1997 – January 4, 1998

African Art Museum

Purpose and Perfection: Pottery as a Woman's Art in Central Africa

See magnificent forms and surfaces of pots built by women potters that provide compelling proof of female artistry in this collection from Central Africa.

January 15, 1992 – October 31, 1997

African Art Museum

Treasures from Tervuren: Selections from the Belgian Royal Museum for Central Africa

See 125 objects from the world's greatest collection of central African art.

June 25, 1997 – October 19, 1997

African Art Museum

Adire: Resist-Dyed Cloths of the Yoruba

See an exhibition featuring adire (indigo resist-dyed) cloths produced by Yoruba women artists of southwestern Nigeria.

April 16, 1997 – August 17, 1997

African Art Museum