On the Healing Power of Creativity: Deborah Roberts and Cleo Wade
This program is online only (via Zoom, YouTube, and Facebook Live). Advance registration is required for Zoom participation, including the chance to ask the artist a question (time permitting). After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the talk.
Join artist Deborah Roberts, poet and artist Cleo Wade, and Hirshhorn Assistant Curator Betsy Johnson to explore the transformative and healing powers of creativity.
Roberts and Wade make different kinds of creative gestures – Roberts most often uses the power of images and Wade the power of words – but through their work, they each share a message of hope, resilience, and a greater future for women and people of color. Roberts creates powerful, collaged portraits of girls and boys in an effort to challenge standard “ideals” of beauty and emphasize the important message that “every child has character and agency to find their own way amidst the complicated narratives of American, African American and art history.” Likewise, Wade’s popular Instagram account (@cleowade) and published books are full of poetry, affirmations, and illustratations that encourage readers to remain hopeful through the challenges of daily life.
This program is inspired by the work of Yayoi Kusama and the Hirshhorn’s current exhibition One with Eternity: Yayoi Kusama in the Hirshhorn Collection.For decades, Kusama has been open about the powerful healing effects that art has had on her. .
The program is made possible with generous support from and is presented in partnership with La Grande Dame by Veuve Clicquot. The partnership is a continuation of the storied French champagne House’s commitment to supporting creative voices and its longstanding relationship with the visionary artist, who lent her signature dot motif to the La Grande Dame 2012 cuveé.
La Grande Dame invited renowned poet and artist Cleo Wade to bring her own vision of optimism and joy to Washington, D.C. Her
Picture yourself outside @nicolasparty largest-ever artwork, “Draw the Curtain” (2021). The four-story, 829-foot commission is the largest object ever displayed @hirshhorn. We love it so much, we’re wearing this timeless outfit through the next few seasons. We think our “Party dress” works day to night, and as you can see, we’re not alone.
Nicolas Party’s “Draw the Curtain” is on view, 24-7 at the national museum of modern art.
📸 credits: Thank you for tagging #hirshhorn: @1001chic @ithomson75 @ljgoetz @micheleegan2 @dsaywell @horizonmanifest @jonkatz5 @misspriyap @jamestearly @benrice68 @detectedbeats @catherinesatterlee @willcopps @the_baltimore_dc_freeroamer @annemarchandstudios @o_l_e_n_k_a_3.0 @brownbagdc @bluemarblereview @coasty410 @minescolasantti @victory_88.3 @nmhnldc @koob13 @dsaywell @deetotheltothedee @dccitygirl @carriegdc @adam_brockett @nicolettarusconi_artistmia @dc.chasers @lbianchini_ @one4themany fitzstudio
Image description: Selfies and snaps by Hirshhorn-goers of Nicolas Party’s monumental building wrap. The image printed on the scrim wrapping the façade of the Museum’s concrete “donut” features the calm grey-faced beauties coolly peeking across the National Mall and surrounds between primary colored drapes.
On Oct. 15 we celebrated the installation of Abigail DeVille’s sculpture “Light of Freedom” with a singular performance by the artist. Ten days later, we’re still buzzing. Throughout her practice, @victoriouspurple revisits America’s origin fables. With “WAKE UP: Liberation Call at Dawn,” she asked: What have been the sounds of liberation for those at the margins, and what are they today? In song and percussion, and in collaboration with @jadelemc @farafinakan @thejogoproject. DeVille called citizens to attention. Thank you to our artists and audience for joining us at 7:30AM for an unforgettable Friday morning. Reminder: Our 1.5-acre Sculpture Garden is open daily, 10AM-4:30PM.
[Images description] In pink morning light, scholar-artist Jadele McPherson sings; West African drummers and dancers of Farafina Kan draw attendees to the center of the Sculpture Garden; the artist Abigail DeVille with flame-blue hair and a dress licked by flames speaks about democracy; and jazz-Go-Go ensemble The JoGo Project plays as the crowd dances.
🎥: Video by Allysa Lisbon for @hirshhorn
(Online) Community: Artist Talk with Rick Lowe
FREE
This program is online only (via Zoom, YouTube, and Facebook Live). Advance registration is required for Zoom participation, including the chance to ask the artist a question (time permitting). After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the talk.
Artist Rick Lowe will be joined by writer and curator Antwaun Sargent to discuss how creativity can empower people and communities to spark economic, social, and political change. Rick Lowe is celebrated for his achievements in both the arts and community revitalization. Lowe is perhaps best known for cofounding the Houston-based Project Row Houses, an arts and cultural community developed in one of the city’s oldest African American neighborhoods that provides art education programs, exhibition spaces, artist studios, gardening, mentoring, and an incubator for housing development, all while preserving the character of the area’s historic shotgun houses.
As an extension of his community projects, Lowe creates abstract works on paper and paintings inspired by dominos, a game which he enjoys and often plays to maintain relationships with residents of his social projects.
This summer, Lowe most recently launched the Greenwood Art Project, a public art initiative of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission that featured 28 artist-led projects throughout Tulsa, Oklahoma, that commemorated and engaged residents in the history of the 1921 Tulsa Massacre through art. Additionally, Lowe launched a sister project in Chicago, Black Wall Street Journey, a multifaceted installation-based project that pays tribute to the journey of building of Black wealth using public art to tell the stories from the journeys of Black communities in Chicago and beyond.
Antwaun Sargent is a writer, curator, and director at Gagosian Gallery. He is the author of The New Black Vanguard: Photography between Art and Fashion (Aperture 2019) and the editor of Young, Gifted and Black: A Ne
Set your alarm. To mark the arrival of her sculpture “Light of Freedom” (2020) in the #Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden on the National Mall, artist Abigail DeVille has composed “WAKE UP: Liberation Call at Dawn,” a site-specific performance taking place this Friday, Oct. 15 at 7:30am. @victoriouspurple is working in collaboration with vocal and sound healing artist @jadelemc; multigenerational West African drum and dance ensemble @farafinakan, and @thejogoproject, a jazz and go-go ensemble. The performance will last approximately 45 minutes; “Light of Freedom” will remain on display Oct. 15-April 17, 2022.
Image description: Text panels and images of artist Abigail DeVille concentrating on the installation of her sculpture, “Light of Freedom” invite everyone to “WAKE UP: Liberation Call at Dawn,” Friday, Oct. 15 at 7:30am in the Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden.
📸: Abigail DeVille installing “Light of Freedom” @hirshhorn. Photo by Allysa Lisbon.
Black Art: Richard J. Powell with Sarah Elizabeth Lewis
Distinguished author and art historian Richard J. Powell sits down with associate professor of history of art and architecture and African and African American studies at Harvard University, Sarah Elizabeth Lewis, to explore how creative elements of Black culture have developed and transformed across decades and diverse communities. Coming October 5, the third edition of Powell’s book Black Art: A Cultural History charts a wide array of artistic achievements—from blues and reggae to the paintings of Henry Ossawa Tanner and the video creations of contemporary hip-hop artists—and the contexts in which they emerged.
Starting with a broad critical overview of the history of art of the African diaspora, the third edition helps readers better understand how the first two decades of the 21st century have been a transformative moment in which previous assumptions about race, difference, and identity have been irrevocably altered, with art and visual culture providing a useful lens through which to think about these compelling issues. The new edition was completed in June 2020, in the midst of major social upheavals and radical change, including the widespread purging of racist and imperialist symbols from the public sphere and unprecedented decisions around problematic branding, such as Quaker Oats Company removing Aunt Jemima from its products.
Black Art: A Cultural History will be available for purchase from the Hirshhorn Museum Shop with signed copies available while supplies last.
This program is presented in partnership with Thames & Hudson.
Museum Series #3 featuring the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden – with Associate Curator Anne Reeve
Welcome to our third installment of #Museum Series. We are thrilled to listen to Associate Curator Anne Reeve from the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. This talk is moderated by Vanessa Badré and will be followed by a Q&A session. Please feel free to ask all your questions!
Rachel Schmidt's art practice is founded in an imaginative forecasting of possible futures, constructing stories about tomorrow from the stuff of today. Schmidt's expansive installations often envision the environmental impact of the climate crisis, incorporating troubling detritus like single-use consumer goods alongside a wide range of media, such as drawing, animation, sculpture, video, and music. Here, she discusses how Joseph Beuys set an example for true creative freedom that she uses as a guiding principle in her work.
@Rachelschmidtart #aboutbeuysDC @goethe_dc
Hoesy Corona is a self-described uncategorized artist whose work examines "what it means to be a queer Latinx immigrant in a place where there are few." Corona's wearable sculptures, installations, and performances explore issues that affect marginalized communities such as obfuscation, scapegoating, immigration, and fear of the other. In this video he speaks about how the work of Joseph Beuys enhanced his understanding of the artistic role that we all play in the creation of our shared reality.
@hoesycorona #aboutbeuysDC @goethe_dc
(AT HOME) ON ART AND THE IMPROBABLE: ARTIST TALK WITH DIANA AL-HADID
Artist Diana Al-Hadid has described her practice as “getting a material to misbehave.” Her sculptures and wall panels draw influence from her Middle Eastern heritage and her interests in experimenting with materials, ultimately melding cultures, art histories, physics, and architecture. Often beginning with a careful study of her materials, Al-Hadid tests the limits of medium and form in order to create works that seek the improbable, questioning narratives as well as physics. Many of her installations incorporate elements of architectural structures, stretching across galleries and public spaces in unique, often gravity-defying, ways.
Among many prominent projects, Al-Hadid was commissioned to create new work for the US Embassy in Pristina, Kosovo. The resulting work, Words From Mountains (2018), was inspired by the historic stone bridge in Prizren, Kosovo.
Al-Hadid will join Charlotte Burns to discuss her work for the US Embassy in addition to her experimental practice.
Having lived in Kansas where he came to understand the enveloping presence of an endless blue sky, Tommy Bobo creates works out of light and darkness that evoke an experience that he describes as "a balance between a science fair and the transcendent." In this video he shares what he learned from Joseph Beuys about materials, magic, and the power of a good story.
@iamtommybobo #aboutbeuysDC @goethe_dc
instagram_dwelling_002.mp4
Just announced! We're hosting a screening series on our website, starting May 14. "Lost in Place: Voyages in Video" will give you at-home access to 11 video works that delve into the complex relationships between people and the places they inhabit. When shown together more than a year into the global pandemic, these works become utterly relatable—no art expertise needed.
You'll meet new acquisitions like Jacolby Satterwhite's "Birds in Paradise" and old #hirshhorn favs like Ragnar Kjartansson's "S.S. Hangover" and Superflex's "Flooded McDonald's."
Stay tuned here for inside looks throughout, guided by the exhibition's curator, Marina Isgro.
Video: Hiraki Sawa, "Dwelling," 2003. Single-channel video; black and white; sound; 9:20 min. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Joseph H. Hirshhorn Purchase Fund, 2006 (06.2). Courtesy of the artist and James Cohan Gallery
[Video description: Black and white video showing small, toy-sized airplanes taking off, landing, and flying around different parts of a living space. The sound of airplane engines plays in the background.]
(AT HOME) ON ART AND ECO- TRAUMA: ARTIST TALK WITH TERESITA FERNÁNDEZ
Cuban-American artist Teresita Fernández, who is based in New York, creates immersive, sculptural installations and monumental public projects defined by a rethinking of landscape that emphasizes the connection between place and material. Using gold, malachite, graphite, ironore, and other minerals that have loaded ties to colonization, she exposes the hidden histories of violence embedded in the landscape. Her subtle, conceptual practice is characterized by a quiet unraveling of site, power, visibility, and erasure in which she layers diverse cultural references to unearth what she calls “stacked landscapes.”
In her recent show Maelstrom, at Lehmann Maupin, Fernández created works that unapologetically visualize the enduring violence and devastation ignited by colonization. Focusing on the Caribbean archipelago—the first point of colonial contact in the Americas—the works in the show challenge viewers to consider a more nuanced reading of people and place, one that looks beyond dominant, continental narratives and instead considers the region as emblematic of an expansive and decentralized state of mind. The artist conjures images of catastrophic weather and natural disasters as metaphors for centuries of injustice, US military intervention, ecological destruction, and systemic oppression as a means of reflecting on the sociopolitical turmoil and abandon to which the region and its populations have been (and continue to be) subjected.
Fernández joins Hirshhorn associate curator Marina Isgro to discuss how she brings together concepts, materials, rigorous research, and evocative imagery.
(AT HOME) LADY BIRD JOHNSON: HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT
In her new book, Lady Bird Johnson: Hiding in Plain Sight, author Julia Sweig uncovers Lady Bird Johnson’s complex and captivating role as a political partner to her husband, President Lyndon Johnson. The story is told in Lady Bird’s own words through the largely unknown audio diaries that she kept during her five-plus years in the White House. Lady Bird’s tapes show her to be a formidable storyteller and historian, a critical advisor and strategist to her husband, and a conscious creator of legacy.
Join Anthea Hartig, Director of the National Museum of American History, and Melissa Chiu, Director of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, for a wide-ranging interview with Sweig on the life and legacy of Lady Bird Johnson, and for a closer look at the untold story of Lady Bird’s behind-the-scenes role in the founding of the Hirshhorn Museum.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Julia Sweig is an award-winning author of books on Cuba, Latin America, and American foreign policy. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Atlantic, the Washington Post, the Financial Times, the Los Angeles Times, Foreign Affairs, The Nation, and the National Interest, among other outlets. Her book Inside the Cuban Revolution won the American Historical Association’s 2003 Herbert Feis Award. She served as senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations for fifteen years and concurrently led the Aspen Institute’s congressional seminar on Latin America for ten years. She holds a doctorate and a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University. She is a nonresident senior research fellow at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas–Austin and lives with her family outside of Washington, DC.
(AT HOME) ON ART AND EVERYDAY LIFE: ARTIST TALK WITH RACHEL HARRISON
Rachel Harrison’s work combines art historical and pop cultural references through an eclectic use of materials. Her sculptures appear at once carefully constructed and arbitrarily arranged, using humor to create an open-ended and thought-provoking experience for the viewer. These complex works often juxtapose brightly colored organic shapes with objects from every day life, such as a shopping cart, USB stick, flag, or photograph of Mel Gibson from Braveheart, highlighting the important notion that art is never separate from the world around it.
The artist will be joined in conversation by art history professor Darby English, author of the catalog essay “A Way Beyond Art” for the 2019 Whitney Museum exhibition Rachel Harrison Life Hack. Harrison and English will discuss her work Pretty Discreet, in the Hirshhorn collection, as it first appeared in the 2004 exhibition Latka/Latkas at Greene Naftali, in addition to her more recent installations.
Think of a wish. Write it down. Tag it #WishTreeDC.
It’s your turn! Join with global artists like @kentmonkman, @jonah_bokaer, Huma Bhabha and @hankwillisthomas to celebrate @yokoono to make her beloved “Wish Tree for Washington, DC” (2007) bloom virtually through April 30. Be sure to tag your handwritten wish #WishTreeDC to be featured.
(AT HOME) ON ART AND CULTURAL HERITAGE: ARTIST TALK WITH DANH VO
Danh Vo makes powerful use of fragments – fragments of objects and fragments of stories – to explore issues of self-identity and cultural heritage. His early experiences of fleeing political tensions in Vietnam with his family and assimilating into European culture in Denmark left a lasting impression that form the foundation of his practice.
Vo often displays fragments of objects and documents that represent Western values to create emotionally and symbolically charged sculptures that explore how meaning changes with context. His 2011 project We the People saw the Statue of Liberty reconstructed on a 1:1 scale in fragments that have since been scattered across the world to emphasize the abstract nature of freedom, while his large-scale installation of the skeleton of a 200-year-old Catholic church from Vietnam that was erected for Massimiliano Gioni’s The Encyclopedic Palace at the Venice Biennale brought to mind the impact of colonialism on the foundational identities of non-Western countries.
Vo joins Hirshhorn curator-at-large Gianni Jetzer to discuss the role that objects can play in defining and interrogating our cultural heritage.
(AT HOME) ON ART AND REPRESENTATION: ARTIST TALK WITH RIVA LEHRER
Representations of historically marginalized people across the media, the arts, and society tend to be few and far between — a resounding absence that the artist, writer, and curator Riva Lehrer has spent her artistic practice rectifying. Building on her own experiences, Lehrer’s bodies of work are informed by the rich disability and LGBTQIA+ communities to which she belongs while steeped in the art historical tradition of portraiture. Her work exemplifies a virtuousity and talent for portraiture, while asserting the importance of representation of people who have been historically stigmatized for their physical embodiment, sexuality, or gender identity.
Working at the intersection of the medical humanities and the arts, Lehrer occupies a unique position threading disparate academic disciplines to upend notions of disability, impairment, beauty, and the range of experiences that make us human.
Lehrer joins Hirshhorn assistant curator Sandy Guttman to explore the intersection of art and representation through her powerful portraits and to discuss and read from her 2020 memoir, Golem Girl.
(AT HOME) IN AND AROUND AMERICA: ARTIST TALK WITH CATHERINE OPIE
When you think of America, what do you see? For more than three decades, renowned photographer Catherine Opie has turned a careful and attentive eye towards the imaging of the United States, its citizens and communities, traditions and landscapes.
Opie travels widely across the country to engage traditional ideas of the American experience while simultaneously upending and expanding conventional ideals and identities. Her portraits—from her earliest images of gay, lesbian, and transgender friends taken in the early 1990s to now—elevate people from all walks of life to the status of a Renaissance portrait, and redefine both notions of beauty and of who deserves to be on a gallery wall. Her recent work often foregrounds the political sphere, and has taken a critical stance on major issues such as climate change, gun control, and immigration. She has also been a leading voice in criticism surrounding equal representation in museum collections, and played a decisive role in recent and contentious public debate about the sale of a historic work by Diego Rivera by the San Francisco Art Institute. Opie’s remarkable 2009 series documenting President Barack Obama’s first inauguration is part of the Hirshhorn’s permanent collection and was recently on view in the exhibition Manifesto: Art x Agency.
On the heels of America’s most recent transfer of presidential power, Opie joins Hirshhorn associate curator Anne Reeve to revisit her 2009 series and discuss the role of photography in both creating and undoing our sense of self-hood—as both individuals and citizens.
(AT HOME) ON ART AND EXPLORATION: ARTIST TALK WITH MICHELLE STUART
Often characterized as an artist-explorer, Michelle Stuart is internationally recognized as a pioneer of land art, offering a perspective grounded in personal experience, travel, curiosity, and wonder. Stuart’s work stands apart from that of other land artists of her generation in its anti-monumentality. Rather than carving into the earth or building upon it, she adopted a philosophy of treading lightly and leaving few permanent traces in the landscape. She has spoken of trying to capture “the handwriting of nature” through site-specific works in the landscape as well as installations that combine drawings, maps, and photographs with sculptural specimens gathered from the earth. Since 2009, photography has been her primary medium. She has taken and collected photographs for nearly five decades, often altering or grouping them to evoke the passage of time and space and reflect on the land as a unique source of memory.
Stuart joins Hirshhorn assistant curator Betsy Johnson to discuss her extensive practice exploring the role that landscape and natural materials play in shaping personal and collective memory.
Michelle Stuart’s Passages: Mesa Verde (1977-79) was recently approved for acquisition into the Hirshhorn’s permanent collection by the Museum’s Board of Trustees.
(AT HOME) ON ART AND SYSTEMS: ARTIST TALK WITH CHARLES GAINES
Charles Gaines is a pioneering figure in conceptual art, with almost fifty years creating widely-celebrated works that employ self-determined formulas and procedures to interrogate the limits of representation, language, and identity politics. Initially recognized for mathematical- and grid-based works on paper, Gaines has expanded his practice in recent decades to include sound, installation, and performance as he continues to mine the possibilities of artworks premised not in self-expression, but rather in methodical systems and processes. Walnut Tree Orchard: Set 13 and Walnut Tree Orchard: Set 14, in the Hirshhorn’s collection, are part of a series initiated in 1973 that bring together photographs and drawings of a tree, with each iteration generated, in part, by the works that came before it. Gaines applies similar rules in his newest series of trees, Numbers and Trees: London Series 1 (2020-2021), that call into question both the objective nature of the trees within them and the subjective natural and material human actions that surround them. In Numbers and Faces: Multi-Racial/Ethnic Combinations Series 1 (2020), Gaines mathematically layered the faces of people who self-identified as multi-racial or multi-ethnic to interrogate ideas of representation, more specifically the political and cultural ideas that shape one’s understanding of the concept of multi-racial identity. Manifestos (2008-2020) sets the words from political manifestos to atonal music using a system of assigning letters to different music notes.
Gaines joins Hirshhorn senior curator Evelyn Hankins to discuss his expansive practice questioning systems of meaning and representation, as well as his longtime tenure as a faculty member at California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles.
Talking to Our Time is back! The @hirshhorn Wednesday series returns with a fresh line-up of 11 exciting artists for real time conversations with curators. We’re kicking off with Charles Gaines on March 17 at 7 pm ET. As ever, it’s free and Zoom attendees are welcome to ask questions. The spring season also features Diana Al-Hadid, Teresita Fernández, Charles Gaines, Rachel Harrison, Deana Lawson, Riva Lehrer, Catherine Opie, Jacolby Satterwhite, Michelle Stuart, Danh Vō, and Anicka Yi. Register on our website. #HirshhornInsideOut
(At Home) On Art and Spectacle: Artist Talk with Paul Pfeiffer
(At Home) On Art and the Human Experience: Artist Talk with Rachel Rose
