Exhibits

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

The Welsh Table

June 22, 2009 - September 21, 2009
S. Dillon Ripley Center, International Gallery
Concourse
Welsh Table comprises ceramics by ten contemporary makers whose work builds on and reinterprets traditional Welsh styles of pottery and their decoration. Within the chosen group are some of the best makers working in Wales today and their work represents a broad range of styles which are currently being made.

Celebrates the Smithsonian Folklife Festival: June 24-28 and July 1-5.

Graphic Masters II: Highlights from the Smithsonian American Art Museum

June 19, 2009 - January 10, 2010
Smithsonian American Art Museum
2nd Floor, South Wing, Graphics Gallery
On view are watercolors, pastels, and drawings from the 1920s to the 1960s to celebrate the extraordinary variety and accomplishment of American artists' works on paper. The works on view 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. Artists represented include such masters as Stuart Davis, Sam Francis, Edward Hopper, Willem de Kooning, Grant Wood, and Andrew Wyeth.

Farmers, Warriors, Builders: The Hidden Life of Ants (new title)

May 30, 2009 - October 10, 2009
National Museum of Natural History
2nd Floor, Northwest Wing, Special Exhibit Gallery (Hall 25)
Some ants grow their own food, just like farmers; other ants build highways that can be seen from the air; and large ant colonies go to war with each other. This exhibition provides a look at life from an ant's point of view through large-format photographs of ants going about their daily business, a cast of an underground ant city, and a live ant colony.

On the Water: Stories from Maritime America

May 22, 2009 - New Permanent
National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1st Floor, East Wing, American Maritime Enterprise
Marine transportation and waterborne commerce underlie American history like a strong and steady ocean current. Maritime trade established major cities, created connections between people and places, and opened the continent. This exhibition traces American maritime history from 18th-century sailing ships, to 19th-century steamboats and fishing craft, to today's huge container ships. Items featured include rigged ship models, patent models, documents, and images from the Smithsonian's National Watercraft Collection. American maritime history is brought to life through the stories of whaling crews, fishermen, shipbuilders, merchant mariners, passengers, and many others who work on the nation's waterways.

Audio and video components
Interactive stations

"Pile of Loot" from Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

May 4, 2009 - September 30, 2009
Smithsonian Institution Building, the Castle
Great Hall
On view is the "pile of loot" from the Twentieth-Century Fox movie Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. This prop was created by designer Claude Pare and includes replicas of such famous artifacts as Archie Bunker's armchair, Fonzie's jacket, and Dorothy's ruby slippers.

I Do Solemnly Swear: Photographs of the 2009 Inauguration

April 29, 2009 - July 12, 2009
National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
2nd Floor, West Wing, near First Ladies at the Smithsonian
This exhibition features approximately 50 framed color and black-and-white photographs highlighting the week-long events surrounding the historic Presidential Inauguration of Barack Obama. Included in the exhibition are photographs by both professional and amateur photographers who recorded events surrounding the peaceful American transfer of power. The photographs on view include selections from the National Museum of American History's new acquisition of 2009 inaugural photographs by leading photojournalists, including David Hume Kennerly, Bob McNeely, and Karen Ballard.

Universal Dimensions: The Space Art of Wang Ming

April 9, 2009 - October 9, 2009
National Air and Space Museum
West End Gallery, 1st Floor, Gallery 104
On view are 35 works by Chinese painter and former air traffic controller Wang Ming. Since leaving China in 1951, Ming used his art to build bridges of understanding between people of all nationalities and cultures. Although his work is rooted in traditional Chinese forms and calligraphy, he borrows from abstract expressionism by using such nontraditional materials as acrylic paints and Pellon (fabric interfacing). In the 1960s, he exhibited with such luminaries of the Washington Color School as Kenneth Noland and Gene Davis.

Inventing Marcel Duchamp: The Dynamics of Portraiture

March 27, 2009 - August 2, 2009
National Portrait Gallery
2nd Floor, North Side
This exhibition examines the artistry of Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) who harnessed the power of portraiture and self-portraiture to secure his reputation as an iconoclast and establish himself as a major figure in the art world. In the process, he played a key role in the reinvention of portraiture and influenced other artists. The exhibition showcases approximately 100 never-before-assembled portraits and self-portraits of Duchamp, ranging from 1912 to the present, including works by his contemporaries Man Ray, Alfred Stieglitz, Francis Picabia, and Florine Stettheimer as well as portraits by a more recent generation of artists, such as Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Stutevant, and Yasumasa Morimura.

The Tale of Shuten Doji

March 21, 2009 - September 20, 2009
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
1st Level, Main Galleries
This exhibition explores modes of visual narration through the museum's exceptional collection of works illustrating the Tale of Shuten Doji, which is about the conquest of the monster Shuten Doji by the hero Minamoto Yorimitsu (948-1021). This popular tale was retold by many artists during the Edo period (1615-1868), appeared in works commissioned for elite patrons, and was widely available in printed books. For the first time since their acquisition, on display are two sets of handscrolls, a pair of screens, sketches for a set of fan paintings by Kawanabe Kyosai and book illustrations by Hokusai and other artists together with paintings from private collections.

1934: A New Deal for Artists

February 27, 2009 - January 3, 2010
Smithsonian American Art Museum
First Floor, West Galleries
On view are 56 paintings created by artists from across the United States working under the Public Works of Art Program, a federal New Deal program that lasted only six months from mid-December 1933 to June 1934. Artists participating in the program were encouraged to depict the American scene, but were free to portray any subject matter; they created works ranging from portraits to cityscapes and images of city life to landscapes and depictions of rural life. Their paintings are a lasting visual record of America at a specific moment in time.

Celebrates the 75th anniversary of the Public Works of Art Program.

Written in Bone: Forensic Files of the 17th-Century Chesapeake

February 7, 2009 - February 6, 2011
National Museum of Natural History
2nd Floor, West, between Reptiles & Western Cultures (new space)
This exhibition features archaeological discoveries that reveal the historic importance of Jamestown and its contribution to the American way of life. The exhibition addresses such subjects as life and death in the colonies, activity and physical labor, health and disease, dietary resources, internal strife, and inter-population relationships and includes the stories of all peoples affected by the colonization of North America -- Europeans, Native Americans, and Africans -- and their role in the formation and function of the first permanent settlements and capitals of Maryland and Virginia.

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.