Asian Art Museum

The peacock mural in James McNeill Whistler's Peacock Room, as seen in the 2022 exhibition “The Peacock Room Comes to America”

How Golden Peacocks on a Dining Room Wall Destroyed a Longstanding Friendship in Victorian Society

Paintings, sketches and correspondence shed light on the drama surrounding the famed “Peacock Room”

Archaeologists used manned and unmanned submersibles to recover artifacts from the wrecks.

Archaeologists Recover 900 Artifacts From Ming Dynasty Shipwrecks in South China Sea

The trove of objects—including pottery, porcelain, shells and coins—was found roughly a mile below the surface

Do Ho Suh's Public Figures is the first new sculpture to be displayed in front of the National Museum of Asian Art in over three decades.

Take a Closer Look at a Surprising New Sculpture That Rethinks Who We Put on a Pedestal

Korean artist Do Ho Suh’s “Public Figures” makes a grand arrival outside the National Museum of Asian Art

The Ghost of a Fisherman, Tsukioka Kogyo, woodblock print, 1899

Why Images of Ghosts Have Endured in Japan for Centuries

A new exhibition at the National Museum of Asian Art displays haunting, colorful woodblock prints

Why aren't there freshwater seals or dolphins in the Great Lakes?

Why Aren't Dolphins in the Great Lakes? And More Questions From Our Readers

You’ve got questions. We’ve got experts

Historic scrolls looted in World War II were unfurled for the first time in decades by experts at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art.

Family Finds Stolen Japanese Artifacts While Cleaning Out an Attic in Massachusetts

The FBI has returned the rare objects to Okinawa, where they were looted during World War II

Long before it was imbued with symbolic meaning in the zodiac and beyond, the dragon was an ambiguous silhouette adorning art forms.

Why Is the Year of the Dragon Considered So Lucky?

The only mythical creature in the Chinese zodiac, the dragon has long been associated with prosperity and imperial power

For the year 2024, here are 24 things to look forward to at the Smithsonian.

Twenty-Four Smithsonian Shows to See in 2024

Election-year items, truth serum, Nigerian art and a pioneering self-driving car are on display this year

“Whistler: Streetscapes, Urban Change” is on view through May 4, 2024, in the Freer Gallery of Art at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, D.C. (above: The Steps by James McNeill Whistler, 1880).

How James McNeill Whistler Captured Life in the Big City

The painter’s streetscapes and neighborhood scenes mesmerize, but now he is being recognized for documenting a changing urban landscape

“Anyang: China’s Ancient City of Kings” is on view at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art (above: A grouping of bronze and ceramic wine cups and warmers that date to 1100-1150 B.C.E.) 

A U.S.-China Collaboration a Century Ago Helped Find Riches of a Lost Civilization

The first U.S. exhibition to display the wonders of China’s ancient city of Anyang is on view at the National Museum of Asian Art

The National Museum of Asian Art's on-going exhibition "Ay-O’s Happy Rainbow Hell," (above: rainbow night 10 from the series, "Rainbow Passes Slowly" by Ay-O, 1971, screenprint 5/55) is part of the museum's 2023 centennial celebrations.

Take a Radiating, Immersive Trip Into ‘Ay-O’s Happy Rainbow Hell’

The National Museum of Asian Art is the first U.S. museum to survey the vivid silkscreens from the 91-year-old Japanese artist

The Smithsonian's podcast Sidedoor uncovers the climate change insights hidden in old paintings (above: Shivalal, Maharana Fateh Singh Crossing a River During the Monsoon (detail), c. 1893).

What Centuries-Old Indian Court Paintings Tell Us About Climate Change

This month’s Smithsonian podcasts include a deep dive into India’s monsoon weather patterns and discussion of animals in flight

Yemeni artifacts on display during a ceremony to celebrate their repatriation

The Smithsonian Will Temporarily House 77 Repatriated Artifacts Amid Unrest in Yemen

Until the items can be returned, the National Museum of Asian Art will keep them safe

Ihor Poshyvailo, director of the Maidan Museum in Kyiv and co-founder of Ukraine’s Heritage Emergency Response Initiative, along with his crew, salvages the remains of the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary built in 1862 and shelled by the Russians in March 2022.

How Ukrainians Are Defending Their Cultural Heritage From Russian Destruction

The Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative and its partners are aiding in the fight to protect the country's history and to document attempts to erase it

At the Natural History Museum, "Cellphone: Unseen Connections" opens June 23; at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City, "Give Me a Sign: The Language of Symbols" goes on view May 13; and "Ay-Ō's Happy Rainbow Hell" is part of the National Museum of Asian Art's centennial exhibitions, opening March 25.

Twenty-Three Smithsonian Shows to See in 2023

A rare Bible, George Clinton's colorful wig, Disney World history and Japanese ghosts debut this year

Living in an era when wealthy Gilded Age Americans assembled large collections of Western European art, Freer aimed to carve out a position by collecting something new and different.

Why the U.S. Rejected—Then Embraced—a Detroit Industrialist's Rare Collection of Asian Art

The legacy of voracious collector Charles Lang Freer, a good friend of James McNeill Whistler, is marked by tension and irony

Tomioka Tessai was beloved for the personality and humor he infused in his work, with exaggerated expressions on his figures, and traditional scenes such as that of his 1921 Blind Men Appraising an Elephant (above: detail, 1921).

Meet Tessai, the Japanese Master Who Ushered in Modernism

Excitement builds for a rare showing of works by the 19th-century painter whose dynamic colors and bold brushstrokes mirrored the avant-garde of the West

“This room is one of the masterworks of late 19th-century art and design, says the museum’s curator of American Art Diana Greenwold.

Whistler’s 'Peacock Room' Open After Weeks of Restoration

The story behind the Smithsonian’s showstopper is one of a major dust-up between the artist and his patron

Smithsonian Secretary S. Dillon Ripley envisioned the Anacostia museum as an outreach effort to the local community. 

What Community Means to the Smithsonian

Smithsonian museums preserve and celebrate history. Yet they have histories of their own that help connect us with Washingtonians and the world

The natural colors of a stoneware tea bowl from Japan and dating to 1510-1530 "speak of the spaces where Zen Buddhists practiced," says the Reverend Inryū Bobbi Poncé-Barger, a priest for the All Beings Zen Sangha in Washington, D.C.

How to Find Wholeness in the Cracks of a 16th-Century Tea Bowl

A new exhibition, “Mind Over Matter,” invites viewers to pause and connect with the teachings of Zen Buddhism

Page 1 of 5