The Freer and Sackler Galleries

The Freer and Sackler Galleries Review

Home to one of the world's finest collections of Asian art, the Smithsonian's Freer Gallery of Art was made possible by an endowment from Detroit industrialist Charles Lang Freer. Opened in 1923, the collection includes more than 27,000 works of art from the Far and Near East. When he endowed the gallery, Freer insisted on a few conditions: objects in the collection could not be lent out, nor could objects from outside the collections be put on display.

Because of the restrictions, it was necessary to build a second, complementary museum to house the Asian art collection of Arthur M. Sackler. The Sackler collection includes works from the Middle East and Southeast Asia. A lower-level exhibition gallery connects the two museums. Both galleries regularly hold special exhibitions.

Highlights

Pick a china pattern, a favorite jade carving, or a painted silk scroll from the collections of Imperial Chinese decorative arts.

Behold the bodhisattva: a 12th-century Japanese sculpture of a Buddhist approaching Nirvana.

Ogle the undulating curves of the 10th-century Indian bronze sculptures of the dancing god Shiva and his wife, the goddess Parvati.

The museum is home to the world's largest collection of paintings by James McNeill Whistler. Be sure to see the Peacock Room, a jewel box of a space that Whistler designed, with gold murals on peacock-blue walls, and a peacock-feather-pattern gold leaf ceiling.

Manuscripts of 15th century Persian love poetry, in exquisite calligraphy accompanied with intricate gold and silver paintings, are a must-see in the Sackler Gallery.

Tips

The Freer and Sackler galleries are home to the largest Asian art research library in the United States, open to the public five days a week without appointment.Free highlight tours meet at the information desks at noon daily, except Wednesday and federal holidays. There are often a variety of other free tours as well; ask at the information desks.The museums regularly host films, concerts, readings, and other events; check the Web site to see what's on.Take advantage of the Freer's wide menu of excellent brochures on everything from Islamic art and Japanese painting to South Asian sculpture and Near Eastern ceramics.At the ImaginAsia workshops, held most weekends at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, children ages six to 14 work on projects such as origami and Asian board games.