Put It This Way: (Re)Visions of the Hirshhorn Collection

This exhibition united almost a century of work by 49 women and nonbinary artists in a range of media drawn exclusively from the Hirshhorn’s permanent collection. One-quarter of the artworks were made in the past decade by the likes of Loie Hollowell, Rachel Jones, Deana Lawson, Sondra Perry, and Kiyan Williams. One-third had never before been on view at the Hirshhorn. Recent acquisitions, including pieces by Dana Awartani, Zanele Muholi, and Billie Zangewa, reflected the Museum’s mission to acquire and highlight global voices.

Titled after a 1963 painting by American pop artist Rosalyn Drexler, whose work was featured in the first gallery, Put It This Way was organized by Hirshhorn Associate Curator Anne Reeve. The exhibition spoke to traditionally marginalized artists’ decisive and virtuosic achievements and investigated a wide array of aesthetic, political, and historical concerns. The full-floor presentation was intended to encourage conversations around the significance of gender in creating and perceiving an artwork, the effects of categorizing artists by gender, and the Museum’s role and responsibilities in stewarding the national collection of modern and contemporary art.

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Printed copies and a braille version are available at the Museum.