Exhibits

A selective guide to the many Smithsonian exhibitions currently on view. For a complete listing, please visit our calendar.

In Plane View: Abstractions of Flight

March 21, 2008 - January 2, 2009
National Air and Space Museum
First Floor, West End, Gallery 104
Details of the often overlooked "simple beauty" of aircraft and spacecraft design can be seen in the 56 color photographs by museum photographer Carolyn Russo. By emphasizing the aesthetic, Russo creates images that distill the complexity of airplanes and spaceships into bold combinations of line, shape, light, and color.
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Perspectives -- Y.Z. Kami

March 15, 2008 - October 13, 2008
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
Street Level, Pavilion
As part of the Perspectives series of contemporary Asian art, three new works by artist Y.Z. Kami are on view. Untitled (2005) and Untitled (Marina I) (2007) are two monumental portraits from his current series depicting individuals in meditation -- each subject emanates a sense of peace and introspection. In Rumi -- The Book of Massanvi e Manavi, the third and largest work that is on view, poetry and religious architecture also give form to the divine. Using collage and verses from the Mathnawi of Jalaluddin Rumi (1207-1273), Kami arranges words like bricks in a spiral of calligraphy that invokes the feeling of looking through a dome or the ecstatic movement of a ritual dance.
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El Anatsui: Gawu

March 12, 2008 - September 2, 2008
National Museum of African Art
Sublevel 1, Sylvia H. Williams Gallery
This is the first solo exhibition of works by El Anatsui, one of Africa's leading contemporary artists, who was originally from Ghana and has lived in Nigeria since 1975. Having experimented with a variety of media, his most recent focus is on the use of discarded metal objects -- tops from food tins or wrappers from flattened metal liquor bottles -- hundreds or even thousands of which are joined together to resemble weavings that both reflect the tradition of Ghanaian strip cloths and the abstraction of modernist paintings. El Anatsui indicates that the word gawu (derived from Ewe, his native language) has several potential meanings, including "metal" and "a fashioned cloak." The term, therefore, manages to encapsulate the medium, process, and format of the works that will be on view, reflecting the artist's transformation of discarded materials into objects of striking beauty and originality.

Related publication: $35.95 (paper)
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Edward Steichen: Portraits

April 11, 2008 - September 1, 2008
National Portrait Gallery
2nd Floor, North Side
This exhibition, drawn exclusively from the National Portrait Gallery's collection of Steichen's photographs, features 50 images from the years of his association with Vanity Fair as well as examples of Steichen's earlier portrait work. As chief photographer from 1923-36 for Vanity Fair, he used dramatic lighting, sharpened focus, and bold compositions to create compelling images of many celebrated personalities -- from Charlie Chaplin to Franklin D. Roosevelt -- setting a new standard for photographic portraitures.
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Earth and Sky: Photographs by Barbara Bosworth

June 20, 2008 - November 9, 2008
Smithsonian American Art Museum
2nd Floor, Graphics Gallery
On view are 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. Bosworth combines multiple large-format negatives in a single print to create her panoramic images and landscape photographs. She is best known for her photographs of National Champion trees -- the largest identified example of each species in the United States. While her subjects appear direct and straightforward, her images are notable for their grace and emotional resonance.
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Alphabetilately

September 26, 2008 - TBA (new opening date)
National Postal Museum
Lower Level, Jeanette Cantrell Rudy Gallery (changing exhibits)
To celebrate the museum's 15th anniversary, this exhibition presents an alphabet of philately through 26 topics, in which each letter stands for some aspect of stamp collecting or the sending of mail. From Advertising Covers to Zeppelins, each topic is introduced by a non-postage stamp image (called a Cinderella), designed by 26 designers in the San Francisco area. The 26 topics and their delightful definitions provide an ideal showcase for displaying both historical and modern items from the museum's collection.

Free brochure
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Discover What Your Favorite Museum Has to Offer

Whether it's your first visit, or your 51st, there's always something new to see. Don't miss these featured exhibits - and check each museum for their complete schedule of special collections.