Founded in 1846, the Smithsonian is the world's largest museum and research complex, consisting of 19 museums and galleries, the National Zoological Park, and nine research facilities.
This display will highlight John Norie's unique Marine Atlas, a large bound book of sea charts dating to the early 19th century, within the historical context of the guano and nitrate trades, in which many of the swiftest and strongest American square-rigged sailing ships were employed.
The exhibition brings together six artists who use computer animation in their work: Ed Atkins, Antoine Catala, Ian Cheng, Josh Kline, Helen Marten and Agnieszka Polska.
In 1942, Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 and, with a stroke of a pen, reshaped the history of Americans of Japanese descent and upset the delicate balance between the rights of the citizen and the power of the State. In the post-9/11 world, the United States continues to wrestle with the tension between personal freedom and national security.
This exhibition reflects the dynamic tradition of narrative art among Native nations from the Great Plains. The exhibition traces the evolution of the art form from historic hides, muslins, and ledger books to more than 50 contemporary works commissioned by the museum.
The exhibition by the Freer and Sackler Galleries will transform the International Gallery into an Afghan caravanserai, complete with artisan stalls and demonstrations of woodwork, calligraphy, ceramics, and jewelry.
What can we discover in just a cubic foot of ocean? Enter the small worlds of marine biocubes to find out!
Robert Irwin: All the Rules Will Change is a major exhibition by one of the leading postwar American artists. It is the first museum survey devoted to Irwin’s work in the pivotal decade of the 1960s.
The Smithsonian American Art Museum is organizing a major retrospective on the art of Bill Traylor. Traylor was born into slavery in 1853 on an Alabama cotton plantation near the town of Benton. After the Civil War, Traylor remained in service on the Traylor plantation until 1929 when he moved to Montgomery. In his eighties, Traylor began to draw and paint. He died in 1949 and left behind more than a thousand works of art.
Martin Puryear (b. 1945) is one of the leading sculptors of his generation, whose work is recognized internationally for its evocative forms and exquisite craftsmanship. The exhibition explores reoccurring forms across time and medium in Puryear’s sculptures, drawings, and prints.
Presents the five-hundred-year journey of how many distinct peoples and cultures met, mingled, and created the culture of the United States.
Explores how a nation committed to the principles of popular sovereignty debated how to make this idealistic vision work and what living in a democracy really means.