September 6, 2008 - November 30, 2008
1st Level
Sackler Gallery presents for the first time Moving Perspectives: Video Art from Asia, a year-long series of exhibitions focusing on recent works of video art that provide rich sensory experiences of the many changes taking place in contemporary Asia. The series begins with two contrasting works -- one dreamlike and lyrical, the other fast and pulsating -- by the following artists:
The following two videos run continuously:
• Liu Lan (2003), directed by Yang Fudong: In this video, a young man in a modern suit and a traditionally-dressed woman meet while a female voice sings a folk song of separated lovers, an eloquent metaphor for the distance between tradition and the pursuit of an uncertain future.
• San Yuan Li (2003), directed by Cao Fei and Ou Ning: In this case study of the "village-amidst-the-city" phenomenon, San Yuan Li provides a glimpse of the architectural density and constant activity pressing in on the old and new spaces of Guangzhou in the bustling Pearl River Delta.
July 12, 2008 - January 25, 2009
1st Level, Vever Galleries
For the first time since the opening of the Freer Gallery of Art in 1923, works from its American collection are shown with works from outside the museum. A series of 22 pastels of the Maine coast -- of which 19 are known collectively as "Sea Moods" (1915-1916) -- by American landscape painter Dwight Tryon (1849-1925) are juxtaposed with six black-and-white photographs from the ongoing series "Seascapes" by contemporary Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto. Although the works are separated by history and art medium, they are linked by a common subject -- the sea.
May 31, 2008 - August 24, 2008
1st Level, Main Gallery & Northeast Galleries
In this exhibition, prints and paintings depicting the scenic Yellow Mountain (Mount Huangshan or Huangshan) in Anhui province, arguably the most beautiful mountain in China, are on view. Included in the exhibition are woodblock illustrations and mountainscapes created mostly by monk-painters who either traveled to or lived in the wilderness surrounding Yellow Mountain during the late 17th and early 18th centuries. These works of art, whether done from nature or from memory, by well-known and little-recognized artists have captured the ever-changing appearance of the area.
March 15, 2008 - October 13, 2008
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.
April 1, 2007 - through 2010
1st Level, Galleries connecting Freer & Sackler Galleries
This exhibition of approximately 200 diverse and visually striking ceramic vessels from Southeast Asia explores the migration of pots from their makers to their users. This exhibition also illuminates the dimensions of international trade that brought southern Chinese ceramics into mainland Southeast Asia and from there reaching distant markets -- from Japan to Turkey. Spanning four millennia on invention and exchange, from the prehistoric period to the present, the vessels on view were crafted for rituals, burials, domestic use, and trade. These clay pots and jars, made permanent by firing in bonfires or kilns, form the most enduring record of human activities, interactions, and ideas about form and decoration in mainland Southeast Asia.
- Indefinitely
1st Level, South Corridor Galleries
Sculptures from 3 major religions are presented: Hindu stone, bronze, brass, and terra-cotta temple sculptures from India; and Jain and Buddhist bronze, gilt bronze, and stone sculptures from India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Tibet.
- Indefinitely
1st Level
A variety of materials, techniques, and motifs, which span almost six thousand years, are explored in this exhibition of 228 objects highlighting the Sackler Gallery's permanent holdings of Chinese art. The exhibition features jades and bronzes, Buddhist sculpture and wall paintings, glass, lacquerware, furniture, and paintings from the Neolithic period to the 20th century.
- Permanent
3rd Level
Twentieth-century Japanese artists give fresh interpretations to the time-honored art of porcelain in this selection of works from the Sackler Gallery's collection. The distinctive decorations, which range from natural motifs to more abstract designs, are created using iron and cobalt pigments and platinum, gold, and silver enamels.
- Indefinitely
Sky-lit Atrium to 3rd Level
It was originally created as a temporary display by expatriate Chinese artist Xu Bing (b. 1955) for the 2001 exhibition Word Play: Contemporary Art by Xu Bing. In order for it to remain on permanent view, it was re-created under Xu Bing's supervision and was given to the museum by the family of Madame Chiang Kai-shek in 2004 to coincide with the Year of the Monkey. This sculpture -- suspended from the sky-lit atrium down to the 3rd-level reflecting pool -- is composed of 21 laminated wood pieces, with each forming the word "monkey" in a dozen different languages. Based on a Chinese folktale, the monkeys linked arms and tails to form a chain to reach down to the pool below to capture the shimmering moon, only to discover it was a reflection. Moral: We often waste much time on futile goals.
Explore the sounds of traditional and contemporary Asian music. You'll also find prints and jewelry from around the world as well as educational materials and items for kids.
Although the Freer and Sackler galleries do not have on-site cafés, many Smithsonian museums do.
View all Smithsonian cafés
