Past Exhibitions

Sunlight deserts, Taos churches, and Western skies are captured in the remarkable work of two iconic American artists.

Explore the expressive possibilities of color in this special installation of twenty-seven large-scale paintings from the museum's permanent collection.

Nature's strength, endurance, and fragility are captured in the dynamic work of Barbara Bosworth (b. 1953).

Aaron Douglas: African American Modernist is the first nationally touring retrospective that brings together more than eighty rarely seen works by the artist Aaron Douglas (1899–1979), one of the most influential visual artists of the Harlem Renaissance.

Ornament as Art: Avant-Garde Jewelry from the Helen Williams Drutt Collection is a landmark exhibition that explores contemporary jewelry from a global perspective.

Travel back 143 years to the revelry of Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural ball. This small, focused exhibition celebrates the president's second inaugural ball, held on March 6, 1865 in what is now the museum's historic home.

Color as Field: American Painting, 1950–1975 is the first ever full-scale examination of the sources, meaning and impact of the Color Field movement.

Between 1928 and 1930, while Obata was in Tokyo, he transformed these California landscape watercolors and sketches into a limited-edition portfolio titled World Landscape Series.

John Alexander (b. 1945) is internationally renowned for his paintings and drawings, which convey humor, rage and a robust appreciation of the human and natural world.

Over the Top: American Posters from World War I features 44 war bond posters, focusing on the four Liberty Loan campaigns, the War Savings Stamp program, the Victory Loan and support for the Red Cross.

Going West! Quilts and Community reveals the essential role that quilts and the making of quilts played in the lives of women on the frontier.

The Lucelia Artist Award, established in 2001, has been an important new initiative at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The award annually recognizes an exceptional American artist younger than 50.

Kindred Spirits: Asher B. Durand and the American Landscape brings together 57 of the most beautiful and famous American landscape paintings of the nineteenth century, including Durand’s iconic work Kindred Spirits (1849).

"Earl Cunningham's America" examines the paintings of Earl Cunningham (1893–1977), one of the premier folk artists of the 20th century.

"The Prints of Sean Scully" presents for the first time at the museum a selection of 57 works from a master set of prints that was acquired in 2001.

"Variations on America: Masterworks from American Art Forum Collections" celebrates the vision and passion of private collectors who are formally affiliated with the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Saul Steinberg (1914–1999) was famous worldwide for giving graphic definition to the postwar age through a dozen books of drawings and hundreds of incisive illustrations for the New Yorker and other periodicals.

The 2007 "Renwick Craft Invitational," a biennial exhibition series at the Renwick Gallery established in 2000 to honor the creativity and talent of craft artists working today, will feature glass artist Paula Bartron, paper artist Jocelyn Châteauvert, gl

Eadweard Muybridge (1830–1904), a preeminent landscape photographer who is best known for his stop-action photographs of humans and animals in motion, traveled to South America in 1875 for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company.

Joseph Cornell: Navigating the Imagination is a landmark exhibition that expands the critical and public appreciation of Cornell as a modern American master.

The exhibition is the first time this remarkable collection has been on display in Washington, D.C. Marie and Hugh Halff, who live in San Antonio, acquired these masterpieces during the past 20 years.

Ruth Duckworth, Modernist Sculptor is a comprehensive retrospective that positions Duckworth within the modernist movement and provides an overdue assessment of her contributions to the contemporary art world.

"American ABC" demonstrates how portrayals of the nation's youngest citizens took on an important symbolic role in the United States’ long journey toward maturity and provides a window into the everyday life of the period—the world of families, children's

William Wegman (b. 1943) is beloved by the public and held in critical esteem by the international art world for his smart, gently subversive humor that parodies all things familiar.

The Smithsonian American Art Museum holds the largest and most complete collection of work by the African American modernist William H. Johnson (1901–1970) and has done much in the past 30 years to preserve his art and establish his reputation.

William Christenberry (b. 1936) looks for the spirit of Southern culture in the landscape and architecture of rural Alabama.

This exhibition honors the completion of the building's glorious renovation and marks the 170th anniversary of President Andrew Jackson signing legislation that authorized the building's construction.

"Grant Wood's Studio: Birthplace of 'American Gothic'" presents his decorative art and design work within the larger context of his paintings, drawings and prints for the first time.

George Catlin's Indian Gallery is hung in the Grand Salon on the second floor of the Renwick Gallery in a way that recalls the Indian Gallery as Catlin displayed it during his tours in Europe.

"Modernism in American Silver: 20th-Century Design" highlights more than 200 outstanding works, from art moderne to contemporary, by the foremost designers of production silver.