Exhibits

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

Fly Marines! The Centennial of Marine Corps Aviation: 1912-2012

Now - January 6, 2013
National Air and Space Museum
Gallery 211 (Flight in the Arts), 2nd Floor, East Wing

Artworks and artifacts are on view to tell the story of the United States Marine Corps aviation over the past 100 years. Artworks include oils, watercolors, drawings, and poster art from such artists as Paul Arlt, Colonel H. Avery Chenoweth, Keith McConnell, R.G. Smith, and contemporary combat artists. Artifacts may include patches, uniforms, and other small objects. 

The Black List: Photographs by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders

Now - April 22, 2012
National Portrait Gallery
2nd Floor

This photographic exhibition features portraits of prominent African Americans of various professions, disciplines, and backgrounds. Historically, “blacklist” denotes a group of people marginalized and denied work or social approval. In an effort to redefine the word, 50 prominent African Americans provide insight on the struggles, triumphs, and joys of life in the United States. These portraits are both pictorial and verbal, representing some of the most dynamic and inspiring personalities in the fields of politics, music, business, civil activism, literature, the arts, and athletics. Featured are American political activist and university professor Angela Davis; musician John Legend; United Negro College Fund chairman and CEO Michael Lomax; artist Kara Walker; and actor, director, screenwriter, playwright, novelist, and composer Martin Van Peebles.

"Something of Splendor": Decorative Arts from the White House

Now - May 6, 2012
Renwick Gallery
Special Exhibitions Gallery, 1st Floor

This exhibition, organized in honor of the 50th anniversary of the White House Historical Association, traces the history of the decorative arts in the nation's foremost home. It features some 90 objects -- furniture, ceramics, metals, glass and textiles -- from the White House collection, along with archival prints and photographs of the interiors that reveal life in the president's official residence. Many of these objects were made by the most celebrated craftsmen of their time and some have never been seen outside of the White House. Highlights include a box lined with wallpaper used in the White House prior to its burning in 1814, a gilded Herter Brothers armchair from 1875, a coverlet embroidered by First Lady Grace Coolidge between 1925 and 1927, and a service plate from the 1982 Reagan state china.

At Home in the White House, in which first families offer their memories about living in America's most famous home, runs continuously.

Related publication: $14.95 (forthcoming)

Power/Play: China's Empress Dowager

Now - January 29, 2012
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
Sublevel 1

This exhibition provides a compelling and immersive exploration of the Empress Dowager Cixi through 35 glass-plate negatives, two original prints presented to President Theodore Roosevelt and his daughter in 1904 and 1905, and film clips. The Empress -- the supreme leader of China for more than 45 years -- was held in low regard throughout the world following China's disastrous Boxer Rebellion. Devising a strategy in 1903 to rehabilitate her public image, she allowed a young aristocratic photographer named Xunling to take staged shots of her and her court. These photos, the only photographic series of Cixi, represent a unique convergence of Qing court pictorial traditions, modern photographic techniques, and Western standards. The 35 glass-plate negatives -- acquired by the Freer from the photographer's sister, Princess Der Ling -- are the only intimate portraits of the Grand Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908) held outside of the Palace Museum in Beijing.

Bon Appetit! Julia Child's Kitchen at the Smithsonian

early 2012 (TBA; tentative)
National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1st floor, West Wing

On view is Julia Child's 14' x 20' kitchen -- custom-made by her husband -- which has been reassembled here exactly as it was in her Cambridge, Massachusetts home. The kitchen, which Child (1912-2004) used as the set of three television shows and as the testing ground for many recipes featured in her cookbooks, is composed of more that 1,200 individual pieces, including everything from her stainless-steel kitchen sink, to her six-burner Garland commercial range, to her personal cookbooks. The kitchen represents Julia Child's extraordinary influence on the way Americans think about their food and its history. When Child moved back to her home state of California in 2001, she donated her kitchen to the museum.

Video (runs continuously)

Related books, DVDs, etc. available in the main Museum Store.

Portraiture Now: Asian American Portraits of Encounter

Now - October 14, 2012
National Portrait Gallery
1st Floor, South

Through the work of seven artists from across the country, this exhibition offers provocative artistic responses to the Asian experience in America and the meaning of being Asian American. The artists' visual stories offer representations against and beyond the stereotypes that have long obscured the complexity of being Asian in America. Their approaches to identity and portraiture elicit mixed feelings of ambivalence, individuality, nostalgia, pride, and pain. The disparate threads of race, ethnicity, gender, diaspora, hybridity, and transnationalism are laid bare in these rich and exciting portraits of encounter. Presented in collaboration with the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program.

The following artists are represented:

• CYJO (Cindy Hwang), New York
• Hye Yeon Nam, Atlanta and New York
• Shizu Saldamando, Los Angeles
• Roger Shimomura, Lawrence, Kansas
• Satomi Shirai, New York
• Tam Tran, Memphis, Tennessee
• Zhang Chun Hong, Lawrence, Kansas

Against All Odds: Rescue at the Chilean Mine

October 2012 (TBA)
National Museum of Natural History
Geology, Gems, and Minerals, 2nd Floor, East Wing

During the autumn of 2010, the world watched as rescuers in Chile ferried 33 miners to safety after nearly two months trapped in a collapsed mine. One of the capsules used for testing the rescue shaft, new video footage, mementos from the miners, and rock samples from the mine re-create the scene of this dramatic event and reveal the complex rescue effort and the miners’ story.

More Than Meets the Eye

February 2012 (TBA)
National Museum of Natural History
Special Exhibit Gallery, 1st Floor, West Wing (near Mammals)

You can learn quite a bit about the world by simply observing your surroundings carefully. But scientists at the National Museum of Natural History rely on special tools, skills, and technologies to examine the world’s diversity of life and culture up close and in much greater detail. This photography exhibition features over 80 images to demonstrate how museum scientists use their super-powered vision to observe, document, and analyze the natural world and global cultures.

One Life: Ronald Reagan

Now - May 28, 2012
National Portrait Gallery
1st Floor, East

The One Life gallery within the museum is devoted to the exploration of the life of one individual.

The Portrait Gallery observes the centennial of the 40th president’s birthday with a one-room exhibition chronicling Ronald Reagan’s early years in Illinois through his acting and political career, to his presidency from 1981-1989. Andy Warhol's 1985 portrait of Reagan, mixing personality, politics, and public image, is featured.

 

Pictures for Everyone

TBA
National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
2nd Floor, West Wing

Nineteenth-century Americans were keen observers of the world around them, and they eagerly sought to acquire all types of pictures. The introduction of photography and improvements in graphic production made printed images much more available for use in family albums, illustrated magazines and newspapers, and as posters for advertising. This exhibition features images (most are reproductions due to light restrictions) that explore how 19th-century audiences received and shared visual information that crossed many barriers, including those of race, class, and language. The display also features related items, including a sheet music printing plate, an illustrated newspaper, and a Kodak camera.

Watch This! New Directions in the Art of the Moving Image

Indefinitely
Smithsonian American Art Museum
3rd Floor, North

In this rotating permanent gallery dedicated to the media arts, the museum takes stock of the cutting-edge tools and materials used by video artists during the past 50 years. This installation features key artworks from the history of video art and works by a new generation of artists on the cutting edge of new media art practices. 

The following nine works went are on view:

• Jim Campbell, Grand Central Station #2 (2009) and Reconstruction #7 (2006)
• Peter Campus, Three Transitions (1973)
• Kota Ezawa, LYAM 3D (2008)
• David Haxton, Painting Room Lights (1980)
• Joan Jonas, Vertical Roll (1972)
• Bruce Nauman, Slow Angle Walk (Beckett Walk) (1968)
• Steina Vasulka and Woody Vasulka, Reminiscence from Selected Works I 
• Marina Zurkow, Elixir II (2009).

Eight of the featured artworks were acquired within the last five years. Campbell's Reconstruction #7 is on loan.

African Mosaic: Celebrating a Decade of Collecting

Indefinitely
National Museum of African Art
Sublevel 1

Like a colorful mosaic made from a thousand pieces of brilliant glass, African Mosaic features 112 objects that represent 10 years of building a permanent collection and reflect the diversity and outstanding quality of Africa's arts. On view are a variety of objects from gold jewelry and wooden figures to a coffin in the shape of a cell phone.

The David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins: What Does It Mean To Be Human?

Permanent
National Museum of Natural History
1st Floor, Northwest Wing (Halls 11 & 12)

This major new exhibition hall focuses on the story of human origins and probes the ecological and genetic connections that human beings have had with the natural world over time. It examines the shared framework of humankind -- the biological and cultural history we all share -- as well as the differences that exist and preoccupy us today.

Highlights include:

• An amphitheater show featuring One Species Living Worldwide
• "Changing the World," a special gallery where visitors can address pressing questions and issues surrounding climate change and humans' impact on the Earth
• Interactive snapshots in time using the actual field site where research is being conducted
• An interactive human family tree showcasing 6 million years of evolutionary evidence from around the world
• A time tunnel depicting life and environments over the past 6 million years

Related catalogue: What Does It Mean To Be Human, by Rick Potts: $24.95 (paper)

Related mobile app for iPhone and Android: MEanderthal

The museum marked its 100th anniversary on the National Mall with the opening of this new exhibition hall on the same date when the museum opened to the public: March 17, 1910.

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.