OU SHAED FUTUE:

COLLECTIONSHIGHLIGHTS

APIL 2024

The following highlights feature a One Smithsonian approach to collections acquisition and 

stewardship. It shows how the Smithsonian is focused on diverse representation within the 

collections that reflects the full story of the American experience.
COOPER HEWITT, SMITHSONIAN DESIGN MUSEUM CELEBRATES NEW ACQUISITIONS 

This month, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, will open a new exhibition, “Acquired! Shaping the 

National Design Collection.” This exhibition, designed with the intention of allowing viewers to gain insight 

into the process of acquiring new works, will open formally on March 16 and continue until September 2. 

Presented on the second-floor galleries, the exhibition will feature more than 150 works, including objects 

that represent the museum’s collecting legacy and works brought into the collection since 2017 that 

demonstrate what it means to be a design museum today.

Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum was founded in 1897 by Sarah and Eleanor Hewitt, the 

granddaughters of industrialist Peter Cooper. Housed in New York City’s Carnegie Mansion, the museum aims 

to educate and advance the public understanding of design through impactful programming, educational 

resources, and a diverse and wide range of interactive exhibitions. Today, the museum is home to a collection 

of over 215,000 design objects, all accessible online via an intense and intricate digitization process. 

Highlights of the work on view include:

• A projection of Watercolor Maps (2012–2015), the first acquisition of a live website into the collection. 

Visitors will be able to zoom in on cities across the world through this web-based, open-source 

mapping tool designed by Stamen Design that displays OpenStreetMap’s data with the hand-hewn 

textures of watercolor paint.

• A series of posters by Jésus Ruiz Durand, created between 1969 and 1972, which are focused on the 

agrarian reform movement in Peru. These posters created an extraordinarily colorful and hopeful 

visual campaign that looked to op art (optical art) and pop art for inspiration. 

New acquisitions set to be included in the upcoming exhibition at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum from 

March 16 through September 2, 2024.
• Faith Ringgold’s 1971 Black feminist poster adapts the patterning of Kuba textiles from the Democratic 

Republic of Congo. Ringgold presents a puzzle of words, WOMAN/FREE/YOUR/SELF, each contained

within a triangle that resonates individually as a shout and together becomes a call to action.

• Jay Sae Jung Oh’s Savage Chair (2021) is composed of found household objects and discarded everyday 

items that she has meticulously bound together and laboriously hand-wrapped in leather cord. 

• Fernando Mastrangelo’s Rainbow Sprinkle Drum Stool (2017) uses multi-color sugar sprinkles to create 

a dynamic static effect while offering a commentary on excess and indulgence in contemporary 

society. 

• Nick Cave’s design for the wallcovering “Wire” (2022) was digitally printed using matte ink on a 

metallic mylar ground to create the effect of a furry surface.

• A 1947 Floor Lamp by Greta Magnusson Grossman, who was pivotal in shaping the visual vocabulary 

of California’s midcentury modern design.

• Textile, Van Gogh (designed late 1950s) by Trinidadian artist and designer Althea McNish, who 

achieved international recognition in the 1950s and onward for her colorful furnishing and fashion 

fabrics that often depicted the tropical landscape of her homeland.

• “Girls” (1972) by Alexander Girard was designed as part of the Environmental Enrichment Panels 

series, which was intended to create a more playful and cheerful workspace.

• Charles Reilly’s 2019 digital video, “Choreography of Life,” exemplifies his multidisciplinary creativity as 

a visual artist and molecular biophysicist. His work uses the design process of creating molecular 

dynamic simulations to investigate and explore.

Support for “Acquired! Shaping the National Design Collection” is provided by Cooper Hewitt’s Collections 

Committee and by the Lily Auchincloss Foundation. 
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF ASIAN ART: NEW ACQUISITION 

OF CONTEMPORARY JAPANESE METALWORK

From March 2, 2024, until early 2026, “Striking Objects” is set to be housed at the National Museum of Asian 

Art, shining a light upon contemporary Japanese metalwork. Traditional Japanese metalworking, a powerful 

and delicate craft, evolved to produce functional items, such as vessels and tools. Hammering was primarily 

applied to create water containers for tea, gongs for religious and secular use, bells, swords, and armor. Over 

time, the development of alloys, patination methods, and the infusion of foreign decorative techniques, such 

as chasing and inlay, expanded hammered metalwork's visual and aesthetic potential. In early 2022, the 

museum received the Shirley Z. Johnson collection of contemporary Japanese metalwork-a gift of 

unprecedented scale not only at the museum, but in the West as a whole. 

“Striking Objects” includes works by two artists designated by the Japanese government as national treasures 

for hammering: Sekiya Shirō (1907–1994) and Ōsumi Yukie (b. 1945). Ōsumi is the first woman to hold this 

title for metalworking.

The latest exhibition from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art, “Striking Objects: Contemporary 

Japanese Metalwork,” will display 17 contemporary Japanese metalworks alongside 18 metalworking tools 

that came to the museum as part of archival materials from the Shirley Z. Johnson Collection. “Striking 

Objects” will introduce audiences to how a basic metalworking technique—hammering—can achieve a variety 

of visual effects. The exhibition was made possible by the Shirley Z. Johnson Endowment fund. Mitsubishi 

Corporation provided support for this exhibition and the museum’s Japanese art program. 
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN HISTORY RECEIVES GIFT 

TO SUPPORT GUNBOAT PHILADELPHIA PRESERVATION

Built in the summer of 1776 under the direction of Brigadier General Benedict Arnold and the Continental 

Congress, the USS Philadelphia was among the ships that were part of a two-day battle against the British in 

October of that year off Valcour Island near the New York shore of Lake Champlain. While defeated, the fleet 

succeeded in delaying the British. An hour after the battle ended, the Philadelphia, which had been badly 

damaged, sank to the bottom of the lake where it remained until 1935. In 1964, the ship was moved to the 

Smithsonian’s possession, where it has been housed and restored by teams at the National Museum of 

American History ever since. 

In spring 2019, the museum kicked off a multiyear project to ensure the long-term preservation of the 

Philadelphia. The completion of the conservation work for the ship is scheduled to coincide with the nation’s 

commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. The Philadelphia is being 

preserved at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History partly through a $1 million leading gift 

from Americana Corner, an educational and philanthropic resource focused on America’s founding era 

through the nation's first century. The gunboat was one of the original artifacts on view when the museum, 

then the National Museum of History and Technology, opened to the public on January 23, 1964. The gunboat 

is the oldest surviving American fighting vessel and an American cultural treasure. 
NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY REVEALS NEW PORTRAIT OF OPRAH WINFREY 

Born in rural Mississippi in 1954, Oprah Winfrey rose to fame as host and producer of the award-winning 

network TV talk show The Oprah Winfrey Show. The show ran for more than 25 years and reached millions of 

viewers. In 1986, Winfrey established Harpo Productions; launched O, The Oprah Magazine in 2000; and went 

on to become chairman and CEO of the cable network OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network in 2011. In 2021, the 

magazine expanded digitally through OprahDaily.com and Oprah Insider, a subscription site. Winfrey is a 

dedicated philanthropist, having donated $500 million to various causes. She is a generous supporter of the 

Smithsonian and girls' education. Her school, the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, in South Africa, 

was built from a promise she pledged to Nelson Mandela.

Oprah Winfrey’s portrait is now on display at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. Chicago-based artist 

Shawn Michael Warren painted Winfrey in a purple taffeta dress amidst a lush garden at her California home. 

The full-length portrait with the frame, approximately 6 feet 10 inches by 5 feet 8 inches, was commissioned 

for the museum’s permanent collection. It will be on view on the museum’s first floor. Shawn Michael Warren 

is a fine artist whose work explores historic events and figures through a unique and striking narrative 

form. Warren’s work is truth-seeking; his murals and paintings tell stories that balance historical accuracy and 

tactful research with stark and often unsettling realism. 

Credit: Oprah Winfrey by Shawn Michael Warren, oil on 

linen, 2023. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian 

Institution. Acquired through the generosity of Tommie L. 

Pegues and Donald A. Capoccia; Taylor and Wemimo 

Abbey; Anonymous; Deon Jones and Cameron J. Ross; Lisa 

Opoku and Loki Muthu; Mack Wilbourn; Charles Young and 

Andrea Wishom Young.
NEW ARTWORK BY RASHID JOHNSON ON DISPLAY 

AT NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture has received a powerful 

artwork from African American artist Rashid Johnson, on loan from the artist’s representative, Hauser & Wirth. 

The 20-by-71⁄2-foot painting, titled “Bruise Painting ‘Message to Our Folks,’” is now on view in the museum’s 

Heritage Hall space. The artwork addresses the impact of social change and the uncertainty of living in a 

period of both reckoning and healing. 

Johnson is one of the most influential contemporary American artists of the current time. Born in Chicago, 

Johnson studied at Columbia College and the School of the Art Institute in Chicago. Johnson began his career 

as a photographer in the early 2000s, and he eventually moved permanently to New York. Johnson is a multidisciplinary artist, working in sculpture, painting, drawing, filmmaking, and installation. He often utilizes 

everyday materials ranging from shea butter to tropical plants, reflecting his childhood and African American 

culture. Johnson’s work is inspired by and exhibits topics such as literature, music, critical theory, personal and 

racial identity, mental health, and history.

Rashid Johnson, “Bruise Painting ‘Message to Our Folks,’” 2023. Copyright Rashid Johnson. Courtesy of the artist and 

Hauser & Wirth. Photograph by Josh Weilepp/NMAAHC.