Exhibits

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

The African Presence in Mexico: From Yanga to the Present

November 8, 2009 - July 4, 2010
Anacostia Community Museum
Main Gallery
This traveling exhibition looks at the history, culture, and art of Afro-Mexicans, beginning in the colonial era and continuing to present day. Highlights of the exhibition include "casta" paintings -- paintings used to delineate racial categories and the ever-increasing complexity of racial mixture -- and discussions of African slavery in Mexico and the hero/slave rebel Yanga; artifacts related to the traditions and popular culture of the Afro-Mexicans; and many paintings, masks, photography, and other works of art.

The African Presence in Mexico also includes a section on "Who Are We Now? Roots, Resistance, and Recognition," which charts the history of the relationship between Mexicans and African Americans in the United States, as well as the relationship between African Americans and the country of Mexico.

Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2009

October 23, 2009 - August 22, 2010
National Portrait Gallery
2nd Floor
The National Portrait Gallery presents 49 of the finalists' works that were selected from the second triennial Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. With a grand prize of $25,000 and an opportunity to create a portrait for the Portrait Gallery's permanent collection, the competition invited artists working in the figurative arts to submit portraits of people close to them. Submissions were accepted in any visual arts media, including film, video, and digital animation.

Related catalogue: $13.95

Falnama: The Book of Omens

October 24, 2009 - January 24, 2010
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
1st Level, Main Gallery & Northeast Galleries
Whether by consulting the position of the planets, casting horoscopes, or interpreting dreams, the art of divination was widely practiced throughout the Islamic world. This is the first exhibition to display the most splendid tool devised to foretell the future, a type of illustrated text known as Falnama (Book of Omens). Of some 60 artworks that are on view, the centerpiece are manuscripts -- noted for their monumental size, brilliantly painted compositions, and unusual subject matter -- created in Safavid Iran and Ottoman Turkey in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Illustrated catalogue

Brian Jungen: Strange Comfort

October 16, 2009 - August 8, 2010
National Museum of the American Indian
3rd Level, W. Richard West Jr. Contemporary Changing Gallery
This major survey features iconic works by Brian Jungen (Dunne-za First Nations/Swiss/Canadian), as well as major pieces never before seen in the United States. Jungen is widely regarded as the foremost Native artist of his generation; his art transforms the familiar and banal into exquisite objects that reference themes of globalization, pop culture, museums, and the commodification of Indian imagery. He first came to prominence with Prototypes for New Understandings (1998-2005), which fashioned Nike footwear into masks that suggested Northwest Coast iconography. Later works have included a pod of whales made from plastic chairs, totem poles made from golf bags, and a massive basketball court made from 224 sewing tables.

Anne Truitt: Perception and Reflection

October 8, 2009 - January 3, 2010
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
2nd Level
This is the first major survey spanning Anne Truitt's 40-year career since her death in 2004. In addition to a variety of three-dimensional works -- suggestive of walls, towers, and other architectural forms -- in which she explored the effects of scale and proportion, the retrospective with over 80 objects presents the column sculptures that became her hallmark. While the geometric shapes of her work resonated with minimal art appearing in the 1960s, Truitt pursued an independent course, incorporating influences from Washington Color Field artists, as well as mid-century abstract painters like Ad Reinhardt and Barnett Newman. Truitt (born in 1921 in Baltimore, Maryland) was based in Washington, D.C., for most of her adult life and has been largely under-recognized for her contribution to post-1960 art.

Accelerate: A National Juried Exhibition for Emerging Artists with Disabilities, Ages 16-25

September 10, 2009 - January 6, 2010
S. Dillon Ripley Center, International Gallery
Sublevel 3, Corridor Leading to the International Gallery
On view are works by 15 award-winning emerging artists with disabilities, ages 16 to 25. Their work reflects their experiences as emerging artists and reveals how their disability has motivated, shaped, and transformed their lives.

This is the 8th juried exhibition for emerging artists with disabilities organized by VSA arts.

One Life: Thomas Paine, The Radical Founding Father

August 7, 2009 - November 29, 2009
National Portrait Gallery
1st Floor, East Side
The One Life gallery within the museum is devoted to the exploration of the life of one individual.

This exhibition features Thomas Paine (1737-1809), whose pamphlet Common Sense fired up Americans to get on with a declaration of independence and whose exhortation, "These are the times that try men's souls," was read by General Washington to his dispirited troops. His story begins in Philadelphia when he arrived in 1774; continues through his tumultuous years in England, where his anti-monarchy diatribe -- Rights of Man -- brought charges of seditious libel; and ends in revolutionary France, where he barely escaped the guillotine. Paine, also the author of The Age of Reason -- a bold attack on organized religion -- returned to America in 1802 to find himself scorned by his old associates and much of the public. He died in poverty, his bones were later stolen and dispersed, but his words have resounded down through the ages. Featured in the exhibition is the museum's recently acquired portrait of Paine depicted by the French artist Laurant Dabos around 1792.

Staged Stories: Renwick Craft Invitational 2009

August 7, 2009 - January 3, 2010
Renwick Gallery
1st Floor, Special Exhibitions Gallery
This exhibition features works by the following four artists:
• Christyl Boger (b. 1959), who creates large-scale gilded ceramic figurines that incorporate contemporary props
• Mark Newport (b. 1964), who examines issues of masculinity through knitted superhero costumes
• Mary Van Cline (b. 1954), who uses plate glass and pate de verre to construct sculptural pieces that often incorporate black-and-white photographs
• SunKoo Yuh (b. 1960), who creates densely layered ceramic sculptures that explore complex issues of family, faith, and community with Eastern and Western imagery

Alan Bean: Painting Apollo, First Artist on Another World

July 16, 2009 - January 13, 2010
National Air and Space Museum
Flight and the Arts, Gallery 211, 2nd Floor, East Wing
On view are approximately 40 original paintings and drawings of the moon's landscape, fellow Apollo moonwalkers, and views of Earth from space by Apollo 12 astronaut Alan Bean, the fourth astronaut and only artist to walk on the lunar surface November 19, 1969. His works enable viewers to experience a world 238,000 miles away as seen first hand through his eyes. Also on view are artifacts from the museum's collection similar to the lunar equipment depicted in the paintings.

Organized to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the first Apollo Moon Landing on July 20, 1969.

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.

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

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.