The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, opened in 1974, is the first museum in Washington, D.C., to be devoted entirely to modern art. Its galleries, research facilities, and storage rooms are housed in a cylindrical, doughnut-shaped building designed by Gordon BUNSHAFT. The core of the collection, some 6,000 works of 19th- and 20th-century art, was assembled by businessman Joseph Hirshhorn and donated to the federal government in 1966. The collection is strongest in 19th-century French sculpture (Auguste Rodin, Honore Daumier), 19th-century American painting (Thomas Eakins, Mary Cassatt), and the first generation of the New York School (Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline). Sculptures by such artists as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Aristide Maillol, Constantin Brancusi, and Antoine Pevsner are displayed in the garden adjacent to the Hirshhorn building. The museum has been particularly active in exhibiting works by younger American sculptors that, because of their size or medium, are difficult to accommodate in traditional galleries.
Return to map