The Freer Gallery of Art opened its doors to the public in the iconic National Mall in Washington, D.C., in 1923 as the first national museum of art in the United States - with a founding collection of close to 10,000 pieces hailing from East and South Asia, the ancient Near East and the Islamic world in addition to 19th-century America. As part of the Smithsonian Institution, the world s largest museum and research complex, the gallery was later joined by the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in 1987.
Art today is often a parade of the self. The Freer Gallery of Art presents objects by medieval artists who plunge you into the world by removing you from it.