Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, art museum and sculpture garden located in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. The museum, which specializes in modern and contemporary art, is located on the National Mall, halfway between the Washington Monument and the U.S. Capitol.

(Read Sister Wendy’s Britannica essay on art appreciation.)

Plans for an art museum affiliated with the Smithsonian were first conceived and mandated by Congress in the 1930s; planning and construction of the museum was shelved, however, after the start of World War II. Interest in a museum of contemporary art was renewed in 1966 after the New York businessman and art collector Joseph H. Hirshhorn donated some 6,000 artworks to the U.S. government. A new museum, designed by architect Gordon Bunshaft to house Hirshhorn’s gift, opened in 1974, the first contemporary art museum in Washington, D.C. Hirshhorn’s collection forms the core of the museum’s renowned collection. It includes works by Edward Hopper, Willem de Kooning, Andy Warhol, Alexander Calder, and Arshile Gorky. The museum is noted especially for its sculpture and features works by Yayoi Kusama, Barbara Hepworth, Pablo Picasso, Constantin Brancusi, Auguste Rodin, and Honoré Daumier.

(Read Glenn Lowry’s Britannica essay on "Art Museums & Their Digital Future.")

Bunshaft’s modern building is a circular Brutalist design that stands in stark contrast to the Mall’s more traditional architecture. It was a subject of some controversy among architecture critics. Ada Louise Huxtable of The New York Times referred to its style as “born-dead, neo-penitentiary modern.” On the other hand, Benjamin Forgey of The Washington Post considered it “the biggest piece of abstract art in town.”