Timeline
1939
The US Congress mandated a Smithsonian art museum for the National Mall in Washington, DC; a design by Eliel and Eero Saarinen was unveiled. World War II and shifting priorities shelved the museum project. On the National Mall, the only venue for visual art was the National Gallery of Art, opened in 1941, which focused on Old Masters.
1962
Joseph Hirshhorn’s collection awakened an international art community. A sculpture show at New York’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum galvanized interest in the breadth of Hirshhorn’s holdings. Word of his collection of modern and contemporary paintings also circulated, and interested parties from Beverly Hills, California; Zurich, Switzerland; Israel; England; Baltimore, Maryland; and Italy (as well as Governor Rockefeller, on behalf of the state of New York) vied for the collection. President Lyndon B. Johnson and Smithsonian Secretary S. Dillon Ripley made a successful pitch for a new museum in Washington, DC.
1966
An Act of Congress establishes the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution.
1969
Groundbreaking for the building took place. The Museum was primarily federally funded, although Mr. Hirshhorn contributed toward building construction.
1970
Founding Director Abram Lerner (1913–2007) oversaw research, conservation, and installation of nearly 6,000 objects, many brought from the Hirshhorn Connecticut estate and other properties to Washington, DC. Funding from Mr. Hirshhorn was set aside as an endowment for art acquisitions.
1974
The Museum opened with three floors of painting galleries, a fountain plaza for sculpture, and the Sculpture Garden. One million visitors saw the 850-work inaugural show in its first six months.
New York Times, 1974: “The Hirshhorn joins a select roster of institutions essential to the study of modern art.”
1981
Joseph Hirshhorn died, and in the following years, the Museum received an additional bequest of 6,400 works from the Hirshhorn estate, doubling the original holdings of the Museum.
1984
James T. Demetrion is selected as the Hirshhorn’s second director. Demetrion’s seventeen-year tenure, from 1984 to 2001, is marked by outstanding acquisitions of artworks, expanding the focus of the collection and filling major gaps in the original Hirshhorn bequest. Demetrion increased the number of exhibitions organized by the Hirshhorn and circulated to other museums.
1991
The Plaza is renovated and repaved, creating greener, more welcoming environments for the display of large outdoor sculptures.
2002–2012
Under the tenures of directors Ned Rifkin (2002–2005), Olga Viso (2005–2007), and Richard Koshalek (2009–2013), with interim stewardship by Deputy Director and Chief Curator Kerry Brougher, the Hirshhorn made particular advances in developing and staging large, full-floor exhibitions. Taking advantage of the Museum’s iconic architecture to create truly immersive and unique environments, highly successful exhibitions included Hiroshi Sugimoto; The Cinema Effect: Illusion, Reality, and the Moving Image; Yves Klein: With the Void, Full Powers; and Ai Weiwei: According to What?.
2008
The Hirshhorn acquired 39 major works from the collection of Giuseppe and Giovanna Panza di Biumo, greatly enhancing the Museum’s holdings and highlighting its commitment to postwar Conceptual art.
2010
The ARTLAB+ digital education studio was established with generous support from the MacArthur and Pearson Foundations. In the years after its founding, ARTLAB+ received international recognition and ongoing attention from the White House and the Department of Education for its innovative programs that transformed the lives of Washington, DC, teenagers.
2012
The Hirshhorn acquired and displayed Doug Aitken’s SONG 1, the first 360-degree exterior projection across the entire façade of the Museum. Nightly performances drew tens of thousands of visitors to the Mall to participate in the experience. The Museum shop was moved to the Lower Level (newly transformed with a graphic intervention by Barbara Kruger), restoring the Lobby to an open space for installations and events.
2010–2013
The Hirshhorn works with architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro to research and design an ambitious Seasonal Inflatable Structure over the building’s cylindrical courtyard. The project ultimately proves financially unsustainable in the economic climate of the time.
2014–2015
The Hirshhorn celebrated its 40th anniversary with the opening of two major exhibitions and a renovation of the Third Level collection galleries, which are restored to their original architectural layout. Melissa Chiu was hired as the Museum’s sixth director.
2017
The Hirshhorn welcomed one million visitors. Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors broke attendance records. The three-month exhibition, placing Kusama’s immersive environments at the center of her practice and propelled by social media, drew nearly 160,000 visitors to the exhibition and 450,000 visitors to the campus in the same period—its highest recorded spring visitation since its 1974 opening. The hashtag #InfiniteKusama reached 91M Twitter and Instagram accounts with 330M impressions. Visitors contributed an estimated 750,000 dot stickers to The Obliteration Room in advance of the exhibition’s record-breaking North American tour.
2018
The Hirshhorn launched a new generation of an in-gallery art guide: Hirshhorn Eye (Hi, for short), a smartphone app that uses image-recognition software to launch short, original videos from art experts and artists like Mark Bradford, Jeff Koons, and Yayoi Kusama that bring visitors face to face with the most important artists and ideas of our time.
2019
The Hirshhorn announced the transformative gift of 50 major historical artworks and the subsequent exhibition of more than 35 seminal artworks by Marcel Duchamp, including the Readymades Hat Rack and Comb, by collectors Barbara and Aaron Levine.
2020–2021
While closed for the pandemic, the Hirshhorn pivoted to broadcasting. Among the initiatives, the Museum launched a weekly discussion series, Talking to Our Time; a virtual expression of ARTLab to engage teen artists; a video diary series; several online exhibitions of video art; and Artists in Quarantine, commissioned with artist Theaster Gates, a library of more than 50 responses from international artists reporting from their studios.
Additionally, in consultation with artist Arthur Jafa, the Hirshhorn, in partnership with the Smithsonian American Art Museum and an international consortium of 13 museums, continuously livestreamed Jafa’s artwork Love is The Message, The Message is Death (2016) online for 36 hours. The project engaged an audience of more than 150,000 international viewers.
2021
While repairs were made the exterior of Gordon Bunshaft’s Brutalist building, a 360-degree scrim designed by Swiss artist Nicolas Party wrapped the exterior of the Museum. The 829-foot-long wrap, based on an original pastel painting, became the artist’s largest artwork to date.
In December, the National Capital Planning Commission joined the Commission of Fine Arts in awarding the Hirshhorn approval for Hiroshi Sugimoto’s revitalization of the 1.5-acre Sculpture Garden on the National Mall. The project addresses overdue repairs to infrastructure and will expand the Hirshhorn’s front door on the National Mall by 300 percent; increase the display of modernist masterworks by almost 50 percent; and increase shade and seating by 150 percent. The project will also reopen the underground passageway to reconnect visitors’ paths, from the Mall to the Sculpture Garden to the Plaza and the front door of the Museum.
2022
In October, the Hirshhorn confirmed the appointment of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and Selldorf Architects to jointly undertake the largest revitalization in the Museum’s history. The project will upgrade the Museum’s interior and Plaza to respond to twenty-first-century museum requirements.
In November, Dr. Jill Biden, First Lady of the United States, was joined by Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III and artists Laurie Anderson, Jeff Koons, Adam Pendleton, and Hiroshi Sugimoto to break ground on the Sculpture Garden.
2023
The Exhibit: Finding the Next Great Artist, a six-episode docuseries produced by the Hirshhorn in partnership with the Smithsonian Channel and MTV, launched. The program introduced seven rising artists and the Hirshhorn’s mission, collection, and campus to an audience of 112M households.
