November 21, 2009 - March 14, 2010
1st Level
As part of the year-long series Moving Perspectives that focuses on recent works of video art that provide rich sensory experiences of the many changes taking place in contemporary Asia, works by Yeondoo Jung are shown continuously.
Through photography and video, Yeondoo Jung (b. 1969, Jinju, Korea) invites the viewer into the dreams and memories of others. This exhibition features two new video works, including a multi-screen installation, in which anonymous strangers are filmed recalling moments in their lives. As stories of past loves, youthful ambitions, hardship, or lifelong secrets are shared, a team of stagehands reconstructs the settings for these memories. By orchestrating clever set re-creations and filming the process from beginning to end, or manipulating camera angles and lighting effects in long outdoor sequences, Jung emphasizes the artifice of the scene unfurling before the viewer's eyes. Ultimately, these videos suggest that reality, filtered through nostalgia and the passage of time, exists somewhere between truth and imagination.
October 24, 2009 - January 24, 2010
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: $40 (paper)
November 22, 2008 - January 3, 2010
Street Level, Pavilion
As part of the Perspectives series of contemporary Asian art, on view is S-Curve (2006) by internationally-renowned sculptor Anish Kapoor. Consisting of two 16-foot lengths of polished steel that are gently curved to create a continuous convex and concave curve, the work recalls the exploration of form most famously embodied in Cloud Gate, in Chicago's Millennium Park. At a height of 7 feet and with highly reflective surfaces, S-Curve engages the viewer in a powerful physical experience. Known for his sublime approach to pure form, space, and materials since the early 1980s, Kapoor continues to examine spatial perception and the immateriality of the object in this work.
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
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