Key	Imgs	Short Description
2023_DC_SIFG_Egypt	78	DC -- Freer Gallery of Art -- Exhibit: A Collector's Eye: Freer in Egypt A Collector's Eye: Freer in Egypt January 28, 2023 – Ongoing A short distance from the steps of the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C, rises the Washington Monument, one of the city’s most distinct icons and an embodiment of America’s attraction to Egypt’s ancient past. Like many cultured...
2022_DC_SIFG_Egypt	20	DC -- Freer Gallery of Art -- Exhibit: A Collector’s Eye: Freer in Egypt (Preview gallery) A Collector’s Eye: Freer in Egypt Opening January 28, 2023 A short distance from the steps of the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, rises the Washington Monument, one of the city’s most distinct icons and an embodiment of America’s attraction to Egypt’s ancient past. Like many cultured...
2023_DC_SIFG_Mounting	19	DC -- Freer Gallery of Art -- Exhibit: A Journey of Taste: Freer and Japanese Scroll Mounting A Journey of Taste: Freer and Japanese Scroll Mounting  April 15, 2023 – March 3, 2024 At times overlooked, the fabric mountings that surround East Asian paintings are often carefully calibrated additions that not only provide structural support but also enhance our appreciation of a work’s subject...
2014_DC_SIFG_BW	26	DC -- Freer Gallery of Art -- Exhibit: Bountiful Waters Bountiful Waters: Aquatic Life in Japanese Art March 8–September 14, 2014 The waters that surround the islands of Japan and flow from its mountain ranges to form rivers and lakes host plants and animals that have sustained human life since prehistoric times. This exhibition features a selection of...
2019_DC_SIFG_Dewings	37	DC -- Freer Gallery of Art -- Exhibit: Dewing's Poetic World Dewing's Poetic World November 27, 2019 – November 2020 Best known for his tonal compositions featuring a solitary female figure lost in thought, Thomas Wilmer Dewing was in reality part of an active social network of collectors, painters, and art dealers. Why do the women in his paintings appear to...
2022_DC_SIFG_Falcons	34	DC -- Freer Gallery of Art -- Exhibit: Falcons: The Art of the Hunt Falcons: The Art of the Hunt January 15, 2022 – July 17, 2022 Swift, fierce, and loyal, falcons have been celebrated for their exceptional qualities for millennia. In ancient Egypt, they were closely associated with Horus, the god of the heavens. By the early eighth-century in Syria, falcons were...
2022_DC_SIFG_Feathered	91	DC -- Freer Gallery of Art -- Exhibit: Feathered Ink Feathered Ink August 27, 2022 – January 29, 2023 Across three galleries, Feathered Ink explores how Japanese artists have experimented over several centuries with different brush techniques in their depictions of avian subjects. Drawing from the Freer Gallery of Art's extensive collection of...
2014_DC_SIFG_Fine	35	DC -- Freer Gallery of Art -- Exhibit: Fine Impressions: Whistler, Freer, and Venice Fine Impressions: Whistler, Freer, and Venice October 18, 2014 – Indefinitely In 1887, museum founder Charles Lang Freer purchased the entire Second Venice Set, twenty-six atmospheric etchings by James McNeill Whistler. This precipitous act marked the beginning of a long and fruitful partnership. The...
2018_DC_SIFG_Screens	23	DC -- Freer Gallery of Art -- Exhibit: For Love of Place: Japanese Screens For Love of Place: Japanese Screens May 5, 2018 – November 4, 2018 Japanese landscape paintings on folding screens had religious and political purpose as early as the eleventh century. Surrogates for the land, these works were employed in rituals to secure the realm’s prosperity. Throughout ensuing...
2019_DC_SIFG_Hokusai	178	DC -- Freer Gallery of Art -- Exhibit: Hokusai: Mad about Painting Hokusai: Mad about Painting November 23, 2019 – November 2020 The Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849) is widely recognized for a single image—Great Wave Off the Coast of Kanagawa, an icon of global art—yet he produced thousands of works throughout his long life. Charles Lang Freer...
2021_DC_SIFG_Hokusai	172	DC -- Freer Gallery of Art -- Exhibit: Hokusai: Mad about Painting Hokusai: Mad about Painting November 23, 2019 Through 2021 The Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849) is widely recognized for a single image—Great Wave Off the Coast of Kanagawa, an icon of global art—yet he produced thousands of works throughout his long life. Charles Lang Freer recognized...
2024_03_18C2_SIFG_Imagined	78	DC -- Freer Gallery of Art -- Exhibit: Imagined Neighbors: Japanese Visions of China, 1680–1980 Imagined Neighbors: Japanese Visions of China, 1680–1980 March 16, 2024 – September 3, 2024 During the Edo period (1603–1868), feudal Japan was largely closed off from the outside world. For three hundred years, a loose movement of Japanese artists, often referred to as literati, turned to neighboring...
2024_03_18C1_SIFG_Raku	22	DC -- Freer Gallery of Art -- Exhibit: Knotted Clay: Raku Ceramics and Tea Knotted Clay: Raku Ceramics and Tea December 9, 2023 – 2026 Japan’s rich history of ceramic artistry developed in large part alongside the culture of drinking tea. Chanoyu (literally, “hot water for tea”), or the practice of preparing and serving matcha, powdered green tea, gained popularity in the...
2022_DC_SIFG_Tessai	24	DC -- Freer Gallery of Art -- Exhibit: Meeting Tessai: Modern Japanese Art from the Cowles Collection Meeting Tessai: Modern Japanese Art from the Cowles Collection August 13, 2022 – February 18, 2024 Tomioka Tessai (1836–1924) exemplifies the modern Japanese painter. Contemporaries praised his avant-garde works, yet Tessai created his nonconformist paintings in a traditional way, basing them on...
2022_DC_SIFG_Zen	74	DC -- Freer Gallery of Art -- Exhibit: Mind Over Matter: Zen in Medieval Japan Mind Over Matter: Zen in Medieval Japan March 5, 2022 – July 24, 2022 This exhibition showcases the breadth of the museum’s medieval Zen collections, highlighting rare and striking works from Japan and China to illustrate the visual, spiritual, and philosophical power of Zen. Rooted in the culture of...
2004_DC_SIFG_Avant	6	DC -- Freer Gallery of Art -- Exhibit: Mr. Whistler's Galleries: Avant-Garde in Victorian London Mr. Whistler's Galleries: Avant-Garde in Victorian London November 20, 2003 – April 4, 2004 This exhibition, marking the centenary of Whistler's death on July 17, 1903, highlights his importance to the history of exhibition design by creating new versions of 2 of his most influential installations:...
2022_DC_SIFG_Rinpa	19	DC -- Freer Gallery of Art -- Exhibit: Rinpa: Creativity Across Time and Space Rinpa: Creativity Across Time and Space September 17, 2022 – February 5, 2023 The Japanese painting movement now known as Rinpa was a loose association of artists that began around the dawn of the seventeenth century and continued into the nineteenth century. Their aesthetic came to define an almost...
2018_DC_SIFG_Spreading	28	DC -- Freer Gallery of Art -- Exhibit: Spreading the Word: Buddhist Art in Japan Spreading the Word: Buddhist Art in Japan May 18, 2018 – November 12, 2018 For centuries after the Historical Buddha’s death, his followers continued to share his teachings, the dharma. Crossing land and sea, disciples, monks, and pilgrims carried the dharma from its origins in India across Asia. Even...
2013_DC_SIFG_Sylvan	15	DC -- Freer Gallery of Art -- Exhibit: Sylvan Sounds: Freer, Dewing, and Japan Sylvan Sounds: Freer, Dewing, and Japan May 18, 2013 – January 4, 2015 Museum founder Charles Lang Freer’s taste for Japanese art grew out of his affection for American tonalist paintings. Illuminating this connection, landscapes by American artist Thomas Dewing (1851–1938) are juxtaposed with...
2013_DC_SIFG_Neighborhood	17	DC -- Freer Gallery of Art -- Exhibit: Whistler's Neighborhood: Impressions of a Changing London Whistler's Neighborhood: Impressions of a Changing London September 3, 2012 – September 3, 2013 James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903) lived in London’s Chelsea neighborhood from 1863 until his death. Bordering the Thames, Chelsea was home to artists, aristocrats, tradesmen, and paupers. In the 1880s, a...
2019_DC_SIFG_Whistler_WC	94	DC -- Freer Gallery of Art -- Exhibit: Whistler in Watercolor Whistler in Watercolor May 18, 2019 – October 6, 2019 For renowned artist James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903), watercolor was the medium through which he reinvented himself in the 1880s and painted his way into posterity. No one was more smitten with Whistler and his works than museum founder Charles...
2023_DC_SIFG_Whistler	110	DC -- Freer Gallery of Art -- Exhibit: Whistler: Streetscapes, Urban Change Whistler: Streetscapes, Urban Change November 18, 2023 – May 4, 2024 Experience the National Museum of Asian Art’s unparalleled collection of works by American expatriate artist James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903) in a groundbreaking exhibition that explores European cities in an era of rapid change....
2023_DC_SIFG_Words	33	DC -- Freer Gallery of Art -- Exhibit: Words of Wisdom: Buddhist Calligraphy from Japan Words of Wisdom: Buddhist Calligraphy from Japan April 1, 2023 – February 25, 2024 Historical records suggest that writing began in Japan around the year 552 when political and religious emissaries from the Korean kingdom of Baekje arrived, equipped with handheld Buddhist sculptures and sutras in...

Contact: Bruce Guthrie