Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

About Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is an art museum beside the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. The museum was initially endowed during the 1960s with the permanent art collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. It was designed by architect Gordon Bunshaft and is part of the Smithsonian Institution. It was conceived as the United States' museum of contemporary and modern art and currently focuses its collection-building and exhibition-planning mainly on the post–World War II period, with particular emphasis on art made during the last 50 years.

The Hirshhorn is situated halfway between the Washington Monument and the US Capitol, anchoring the southernmost end of the so-called L'Enfant axis (perpendicular to the Mall's green carpet). The National Archives/National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden across the Mall, and the National Portrait Gallery/Smithsonian American Art building several blocks to the north, also mark this pivotal axis, a key element of both the 1791 city plan by Pierre L'Enfant and the 1901 MacMillan Plan.

The building itself is an attraction, an open cylinder elevated on four massive "legs", with a large fountain occupying the central courtyard.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Founded
1974
Annual visitors
681K
in 2015
Architect
Gordon Bunshaft
Director
Melissa Chiu

More museums in Washington →Best museums in District of Columbia →

Photos of Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

  1. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington01WashingtonGryffindor · Public domain
  2. Inside Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden02Inside Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture GardenBottom floor gallery of the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, DC; digital photo by User:Postdlf, 1-8-05 · CC BY-SA 3.0
  3. Hirshhorn Museum (inner gallery)03Hirshhorn Museum (inner gallery)Postdlf · CC BY-SA 3.0
  4. Hirshhorn Museum (outer gallery)04Hirshhorn Museum (outer gallery)Postdlf · CC BY-SA 3.0
  5. UntitledGoldBox05UntitledGoldBoxThe original uploader was Ser Amantio di Nicolao at English Wikipedia. · Public domain
  6. Shana Lutker speaking at the Hirshhorn, January06Shana Lutker speaking at the Hirshhorn, JanuaryBangabandhu · CC BY-SA 4.0

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Nearby museums

Make a day of it. 4 more museums are within a mile of Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden; the closest, Army Medical Museum and Library, is practically next door.