art + artists

on view now

The Panza Collection and Ways of Seeing

Count Giuseppe Panza di Biumo is one of the world's foremost collectors of American and European contemporary art. The Hirshhorn recently acquired thirty-nine works from Dr. Panza's collection, all of which are on view this fall. As a group, the pieces provide an overview of the critical premises driving Conceptual, Light and Space, Minimal, and Environmental art.

in depth

Francis Bacon (British, born Dublin, Ireland, 1909–1992) grew up in Dublin and London amidst the upheaval of World War I and the Irish Home Rule movement. After leaving home at 16, he spent the late 1920s in Berlin and Paris, where he worked as an interior designer. He decided to become an artist after seeing an impressive Paris exhibition of Pablo Picasso's works, and in 1929 he returned to London and began painting. Virtually self-taught, Bacon won early praise from influential critics during the 1930s. However, in about 1943, he destroyed most of his early paintings.

staff picks

collection highlights

Strange Bodies: Figurative Works from the Collection

An important strength of the Hirshhorn Museum is its holdings in figurative art. Strange Bodies brings together some of the most praised and popular examples of figuration from the collection to show how expressionistic and surrealistic impulses toward human representation have evolved from the early and mid-twentieth century to recent decades.  The tension between the enthusiastic response that figuration often receives from general audiences and the loaded, at times dark content it can carry is also explored.  Moreover, the installation allows an assessment of past collection building.

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exhibition highlights

Directions--Terence Gower, Public Spirit

Terence Gower’s project "Public Spirit" grew out of his research into the history of the museum during his 2007 artist fellowship with the Smithsonian. The exhibition tells the story of the original proposal for the Hirshhorn Museum, which founder Joseph Hirshhorn envisioned as the centerpiece of a utopian "town of culture" planned for the wilderness of western Ontario, Canada. In the mid-1950’s, Hirshhorn enlisted architect Phillip Johnson to design the town, and although the project was never realized, photographic documentation of his architectural model still exists. Gower uses these photos along with other documentation of the plans for the town and Ezra Stoller’s photographs of the Gordon Bunshaft-designed Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden for his material.