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Monday 12pm - 5:30pm Tuesday 10am - 5:30pm Wednesday 10am - 5:30pm Thursday 10am - 5:30pm Friday 10am - 5:30pm Saturday 10am - 5:30pm Sunday 10am - 5:30pm

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

Name: Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Address: Washington D.C., DC, US
Telephone: +12026331000
Price range: $

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Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

Come as you are. Leave transformed. Smithsonian museum of modern and contemporary art. Open daily, 10AM–5:30PM. Always free. Legal: ‪http://s.si.edu/legal‬

Welcome to our page! Please feel free to share thoughts about our posts, ask us questions, or tell us about your visit. The Smithsonian Institution’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden welcomes visitors at all levels of understanding to experience the transformative power of contemporary art. The museum collects, preserves, and presents international modern and contemporary art in all

media, distinguished by in-depth holdings of major artists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. By collaborating with artists on exhibitions, programs, and special projects, the Hirshhorn provides an important national platform in Washington, DC for the vision and voices of artists. The museum is open daily from 10 am to 5:30 pm (closed December 25) and is located at Independence Avenue and Seventh Street SW; admission is free. We hope you’ll contribute to this interactive forum and to our ongoing conversation about the work we do to further the Smithsonian's mission to increase and diffuse knowledge. While on-topic discussion is encouraged, we ask that you express yourself in a civil manner and treat other users with respect. The Smithsonian also monitors and may remove posts consistent with its terms of use, as described at http://si.edu/Termsofuse -gen. For our Privacy Policy: http://www.si.edu/Privacy

07/13/2025

On Sunday, July 13, some of our National Mall locations are closed due to an HVAC issue. These include our Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, and Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. Plan your visit to our other locations: https://www.si.edu/visit

07/08/2025

"I felt that I have no right to withdraw from the responsibility of being an advocate. It is my duty to voice the sufferings of men, the never-ending sufferings heaped mountain-high."—Käthe Kollwitz

Artist Käthe Kollwitz (1867–1945) was born on this day in Königsberg, Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia). Kollwitz is perhaps best known for her unflinching depictions of the effects of war and poverty on working-class people, especially women. Her life and artwork were heavily influenced by significant personal loss, including the death of her son Peter in World War I, and her husband's medical clinic for workers and people in need. Initially, Kollwitz studied painting, but by the early 1890s, she had shifted her focus to printmaking and sculpture. While she continued experimenting across all three mediums, she was especially drawn to printmaking's potential for social advocacy, as prints could be reproduced and distributed quickly, inexpensively, and in large quantities.

Come face to face with Käthe Kollwitz through her "Self-Portrait" (1926–1932/cast c. 1946–1956) in "Revolutions," only at the Hirshhorn.

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Image credit: Käthe Kollwitz, "Self-Portrait," 1926–1932/cast c. 1946–1956. Bronze. Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1966. © 2025 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

07/02/2025

Go BIG: "Big Things for Big Rooms" opens at the Hirshhorn on Nov. 21, 2025.

"Big Things for Big Rooms" traces the development of immersive, large-scale artworks since the late 1960s. The presentation of 10 artworks—five on view for the first time at the Museum—is drawn largely from the Hirshhorn’s collection. Organized in two parts, the exhibition offers a multisensorial investigation of how artists create installation works that expand the boundaries of an artwork and the role of the visitor. The first introduces the development of "Environments," expansive installations by pioneering artists Dan Flavin, Sam Gilliam, Robert Irwin, whose work defined the Light and Space movement, Lygia Pape, and land artist Richard Long. The second half demonstrates how contemporary artists like Paul Chan, Olafur Eliasson, Spencer Finch, Rashid Johnson and Mika Rottenberg are expanding upon these foundational ideas in different ways, often using everyday materials.

"Big Things for Big Rooms" will be on view from Nov. 21, 2025, through July 4, 2027. Learn more: https://s.si.edu/46qpYWe

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Image credit: Sam Gilliam, "Light Depth," 1969. Acrylic on canvas. Gift from the Trustees of the Corcoran Gallery of Art (Museum purchase, Gallery Fund), 2018. Courtesy of Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. © 2025 Estate of Sam Gilliam / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Lee Stalsworth.

07/01/2025

It's Party time: Happy birthday to artist NicolasParty! 🎉 Born on this day in Lausanne, Switzerland, Party is known for his familiar yet unsettling landscapes, portraits, and still-lifes. His colorful artworks celebrate and challenge conventions of representational painting, though he works across multiple mediums. While his imaginative works are primarily created in soft pastel, he has also produced public murals, pietra dura (a stone-inlay technique), ceramics, installation works, and sculptures, like the one currently on view at the entrance to "Revolutions." In 2021, Party also created "Draw the Curtain," a site-specific commission for the Hirshhorn that transformed the Museum's cylindrical façade into a monumental canvas.

🎊 Get a "Head": Visit the Hirshhorn to see Nicolas Party's "Head" (2018–2022).

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Image credits: 1) Nicolas Party, "Head," 2018-2022. Oil on coated polysterene. Gift of Iris and Adam Singer, 2022. Courtesy Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Photo by Rick Coulby.
2) Nicolas Party with “Draw the Curtain” (2021) by Nicolas Party, commissioned by the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, 2021. Courtesy of the artist. © Tony Powell.

06/25/2025

Today we remember sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro, whose mysterious and magnetic "Sphere No. 6 (Sphere within a Sphere)" (1963-1965) has often been on view in the Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden. Pomodoro’s works investigate the chaos that lives within an object, no matter how smooth and "perfect" its surface might appear, and "Sphere No. 6" demonstrates this tension by revealing a labyrinthine mesh within a smooth, metallic shell.

Pomodoro was an advocate not only for art but for artists, establishing a foundation in Milan to support his own work and that of other sculptors. In his words: "The artist is part of a cultural tissue; his active contribution can never be lost ... but the best must be yet to come."

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Image credit: Arnaldo Pomodoro, "Sphere No. 6 (Sphere within a Sphere)," 1963-1965. Bronze. 45 × 46 1/2 × 47 5/8 in. Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1966. © Arnaldo Pomodoro. All rights reserved. Photo by Cathy Carver.

06/24/2025

Happy birthday to Robert Henri (1865–1929)! 🎂 Born on this day in Cincinnati, Ohio, Henri is known for his influential teaching work and for leading the Ashcan School, an artistic movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that realistically portrayed scenes of daily life in New York City's working-class neighborhoods. A proponent of "art for life's sake," Henri's straightforward, uncompromising portraits depicted a wide variety of subjects from many walks of life. He was also an immensely successful and popular teacher at both the Philadelphia School of Design for Women and the Art Students League of New York.

🍰 Come face to face with three of Robert Henri's portraits in "Revolutions," only at the Hirshhorn.

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Image credits: Robert Henri, "Portrait of a Girl, Checkered Blouse" (1910), "Celestina" (1908), and "Woman in White: Portrait of Eugenie Stein" (1904). Oil on canvas lined to linen, oil on canvas, and oil on canvas, respectively. Gifts of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1966. Photo 2 by Cathy Carver and Photo 3 by Lee Stalsworth.

06/20/2025

Things are heating up: We've got a lot going on at the Hirshhorn over the next few days! Here are a few tips for planning your upcoming visit.

☀️ Solstice Saturday is tomorrow, June 21: Join us anytime, 10AM–10PM, to explore exciting exhibitions including "OSGEMEOS: Endless Story," "Basquiat x Banksy," "Adam Pendleton: Love, Queen," and more. Plus, dive deeper with a free guided tour of Hirshhorn Highlights at 11:30AM.

🎨 Get hands-on: Solstice Saturday will also feature free, all-ages art-making in the Hirshhorn Art School! Stop by for Open Studio, 10AM–2PM, and Summer Teen Studio, 2:30PM–4PM.

📌 Finally, please note: "Laurie Anderson: Four Talks" will be closed Monday, June 23, and Tuesday, June 24, for conservation.

Ready, set, go: Link in bio to learn more about planning your free visit.

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Image credit: Laurie Anderson, "The Witness Protection Program (The Raven)," 2020. Installation view from "Laurie Anderson: The Weather" at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, 2021. Courtesy of the artist. Photo by Ron Blunt.

06/17/2025

🎶 Why do you beam me up (beam me up), UFO, baby...

Explore the dazzling worlds of "OSGEMEOS: Endless Story," an immersive full-floor exhibition packed with 1,000 artworks, photographs, archival materials, and, naturally, UFOs. From the streets and beaches of Brazil, to OSGEMEOS's magical universe of Tritrez, to the stars and beyond, there's a home for everyone inside the artists' limitless imagination.

🛸 This UFO won't let you down: Travel through "OSGEMEOS: Endless Story," only at the Hirshhorn.

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Image credit: Installation view of OSGEMEOS, "Chuva de verão (Summer Rain)" (2008), "O abduzido (The Abductee)" (2020), "The Garden" (2020), and "The Sunset" (2019) in "OSGEMEOS: Endless Story," September 29, 2024–August 3, 2025. Courtesy of the artists. © OSGEMEOS. Photo: Rick Coulby.

06/16/2025

The Hirshhorn is saddened to learn of the passing of American artist Joel Shapiro, a Post-Minimalist sculptor known for precariously balanced “stick figures” rendered in varying colors and postures. In these works, Shapiro walked a nimble artistic tightrope, managing to hone a sensibility that remains both industrial and personable, rigorous, and approachable. The Hirshhorn is fortunate to count one sculpture and one print by the artist as part of its collection.

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Image: Joel Shapiro, "Untitled," 1986. Bronze on steel, 54 7/8 x 80 1/4 x 42 1/4 in. including base. Courtesy of Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. © 2025 Joel Shapiro / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

06/12/2025

Happy birthday to Anni Albers (1899–1994)! 🎂 Born on this day in Berlin, Germany, Albers is known as a leader in 20th-century fiber art. While she worked throughout her career as a textile designer and printmaker, she also maintained practices in writing and jewelry making. In the 1920s, she attended the Bauhaus art school, whose Modernist design principles emphasized the intersection of art, architecture, and craft and the democratization of art. There, Albers enrolled in Gunta Stölzl’s weaving workshop, which introduced her to the possibilities of textile art, and she began to experiment with nonrepresentational weavings and unconventional materials such as horse hair, metallic thread, plastics, and metal.

🎈 Get the "Memo": See Anni Albers's "Memo" (1958) in "Revolutions," only at the Hirshhorn.

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Image credit: Anni Albers, "Memo," 1958. Woven textile mounted on fabric mounted on wood in artist’s frame. The Joseph H. Hirshhorn Bequest, 1981. © The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, 2025. Photo: Cathy Carver.

06/11/2025

Lights, color, action! 💡 Enter Tritrez, OSGEMEOS's invented, fantastical world. The twin artists began depicting Tritrez in drawings in the 1980s, but today, they've expanded their universe into fully three-dimensional forms. One of these works, "The Tritrez Altar" (2020), features vibrant lights and a rainbow-colored structure that houses figures in streetwear posing like gods or saints. These sculptures, and the other works featured in our Tritrez gallery, combine mystical and sacred geometry, references to 1970s and 1980s movies like "The Holy Mountain" (1973) and "Flash Gordon" (1980), and the Afrofuturist style of hip-hop groups such as Afrika Bambaataa's Soulsonic Force to offer a warm and inviting vision of modern spirituality.

🎨 Meet us at the (Tritrez) altar in "OSGEMEOS: Endless Story," only at the Hirshhorn.

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Image credit: Installation view of OSGEMEOS's "The Tritrez Altar" (2020) in "OSGEMEOS: Endless Story," September 29, 2024–August 3, 2025. Courtesy of the artists. © OSGEMEOS. Photo: Rick Coulby.

06/10/2025

"Painting is as much an act of performance as it is an act of translation and transformation."—Adam Pendleton

Artist .adam is known for his visually distinct and conceptually rigorous paintings. Works such as his "Black Dada" paintings begin with drips, splatters, sprays, geometric shapes, words and phrases, and inky fragments reminiscent of broken letters, which are then photographed and layered using a screen-printing process. The resulting paintings blur the distinctions between the acts of painting, drawing, and photography, transforming each work into something entirely singular and new.

Encounter Adam Pendleton's "Black Dada (D/D)" (2024) and more in "Adam Pendleton: Love, Queen," only at the Hirshhorn.

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Image credit: Adam Pendleton, "Black Dada (D/D)," 2024. Silkscreen ink and black gesso on canvas, two parts. © Adam Pendleton. Photo: Andy Romer

Address

Washington D.C., DC

Opening Hours

Monday	12pm - 5:30pm
Tuesday	10am - 5:30pm
Wednesday	10am - 5:30pm
Thursday	10am - 5:30pm
Friday	10am - 5:30pm
Saturday	10am - 5:30pm
Sunday	10am - 5:30pm

Telephone

+12026331000

Website

http://hirshhorn.si.edu/

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