Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

African Mankala

See 27 sculptured gameboards and 11 related objects that depict the vital visual forms of Africa's popular game, mankala.

June 20, 1984 – October 7, 1984

African Art Museum

Patterns and Forms in African Art

See some 30 works examining pattern and form in four sections: body painting and body scarification; "Decorated Form," illustrating the way in which African artists shape household objects; ritual uses and qualities; and pattern in textiles.

August 20, 1984 – September 16, 1984

African Art Museum

Ethiopia: The Art of a Christian Nation

See 18 painted wood icons that form the nucleus of an exhibition that illustrates the stylistic evolution of Ethiopian religious art.

May 23, 1984 – August 5, 1984

African Art Museum

Adire Cloth from Nigeria

See examples of the indigo-dyed and patterned textiles produced by the skilled dyers among the Yoruba women of Nigeria.

April 23, 1984 – July 5, 1984

African Art Museum

African Islam

See more than 100 works of art that explore the interaction of Islam and traditional African life.

November 30, 1983 – April 22, 1984

African Art Museum

The Equestrian Image

View a brass sculpture that served as a finial on a large iron staff, an emblem of leadership called a "sono" by the peoples of Guinea-Bissau in West Africa.

February 17, 1984 – April 8, 1984

African Art Museum

Wood Carving from Zaire

See a sculpture of a woman and child that is the only Yombe maternity figure of its kind in a public museum collection in the U.S.

February 1, 1984 – February 5, 1984

African Art Museum

African Art in Color

See 67 objects that explore polychromy in traditional African art.

May 18, 1983 – October 16, 1983

African Art Museum

From the Earth: African Ceramic Art

View 84 objects made from clay, representing the ceramic art styles of 28 cultures from 19 African nations.

May 18, 1983 – October 9, 1983

African Art Museum

Recent Acquisitions: Benin Bronzes

View 2 outstanding examples of Benin court art.

April 1, 1983 – October 9, 1983

African Art Museum

African Emblems of Status

This exhibition of 205 objects presents the variety of forms, materials and kinds of art objects created to identify, honor, and celebrate individuals of status and achievement.

October 27, 1982 – April 3, 1983

African Art Museum

The Stranger Among Us

View masks, textiles, and sculpture by traditional African artists in this exhibition tracing African encounters with outside influences.

March 24, 1982 – September 6, 1982

African Art Museum

Thinking With Animals: African Images and Perceptions

View portrayals of animals as reminders in African art of man's dependence on the animal world for physical and emotional well-being.

March 24, 1982 – September 6, 1982

African Art Museum

Life...Afterlife: African Funerary Sculpture

See more than 100 pieces of funerary sculpture from all regions of Africa showing how art is used in African funerals to express concepts of life, death, and the continual cycle of existence.

November 19, 1981 – March 1, 1982

African Art Museum

Out of the Ordinary: Domestic and Ritual Furnishings from Africa

View an exhibit of domestic furnishings that illustrates the aesthetic and spiritual qualities they have in common with ritual objects.

September 17, 1981 – October 31, 1981

African Art Museum

Costumes and Jewelry of the Maasai

See costumes, jewelry, dress, and accessories of the people of Kenya and parts of Tanzania.

July 1, 1981 – September 7, 1981

African Art Museum

Selections from the Permanent Collection

View 450 objects, including sculpture, masks, jewelry, ceremonial costumes, and textiles.

June 26, 1980 – August 31, 1981

African Art Museum

Traditional Costumery and Jewelry in Africa

View costumes from Nigeria, Cameroon, Tanzania, and Kenya as well as jewelry of the Berber people of Algeria and Morocco, the Masai of Tanzania, the Zulu of southeastern Africa, the Baule of the Ivory Coast, and the Bobo of Upper Volta

February 27, 1981 – May 31, 1981

African Art Museum

Traditional Art of Angola and Cameroon

View selections from the permanent collection.

December 18, 1980 – May 31, 1981

African Art Museum

Traditional Costumes and Jewelry of Egypt

View embroidered dresses, cloaks, veils, belts, footwear, necklaces, bracelets and other items from all sections of Egypt, including the eastern desert, the Sinai, Nubia and oases of the south.

March 16, 1981 – May 3, 1981

African Art Museum

The Art of Mali and Guinea

View a new segment of the permanent collection featuring ceremonial masks and figures of the peoples of Mali and Guinea, as well as photo-murals of Dogon villages by Eliot Elisofon.

November 15, 1980 – February 20, 1981

African Art Museum

Treasures of Ancient Nigeria: Legacy of 2,000 Years

See approximately 100 objects that comprise the first comprehensive exhibition of Nigerian art in the U.S.

December 18, 1980 – February 1, 1981

African Art Museum

A Caravan of Crafts from the Sahel

View and purchase Tuareg jewelry, handwoven textiles, Botswana baskets, wooden sculpture, and Boklafani print ties.

November 15, 1980 – January 31, 1981

African Art Museum

Appliqued Textiles of the Dahomey Kingdom

View 18 colorful textile hangings, traditional symbols of power in the royal courts of the Fon people of the Republic of Benin (formerly Dahomey). A Fon royal palace courtyard is re-created in the exhibition gallery.

April 15, 1980 – December 14, 1980

African Art Museum

The Image of the Black in Western Art

See a representative selection of reproductions of art and artifacts from Egypt, Nubia, the Greco-Roman world, Byzantium, and medieval Western Europe in 100 framed photographs.

September 27, 1980 – November 2, 1980

African Art Museum