Black Box: Superflex

August 9, 2010 - November 28, 2010 Rotating Exhibit
Lower Level
The Black Box theater showcases rotating exhibitions of contemporary artists who use film or video as their creative medium. Films or videos run continuously.

August 9, 2010-November 28, 2010
Since 1993, Superflex, the Copenhagen and Rio-based art collective -- members include Jakob Fenger (b. 1968, Roskilde, Denmark), Rasmus Nielsen (b. 1969, Hjoerring, Denmark), and Bjornstjerne Reuter Christiansen (b. 1969, Copenhagen, Denmark) -- has used social intervention to call attention to such issues as democratization, environmentalism, and consumerism.

Flooded McDonald's (2009): In this film, the artists meticulously reconstructed a true-to-scale replica of an actual restaurant that slowly fills with water. The film is not a commentary about the multinational company as much as it is the incorporation of a ubiquitous setting that signifies different things to different people. The artists borrow cinematic vocabulary used in documentaries, ads, and disaster films to propose a suspenseful, ambiguous drama. For whatever reason, patrons and staff have all left the restaurant's premises, leaving viewers alone to watch, think, and speculate.

Yves Klein: With the Void, Full Powers

May 20, 2010 - September 12, 2010
2nd Floor
The first American retrospective in nearly 30 years of this highly influential French artist's career examines his life and work from the mid-1950s to his untimely death in 1962. Artist, composer, judo master, Rosicrucian, proto-conceptualist, and performance artist, Klein was a multifaceted talent who believed in the transformative power of art. In his series, including the Monochromes, Anthropometries, Cosmogonies, Air Architecture, Fire Paintings, Sponge Reliefs, and Actions, Klein sought to place the immaterial at the heart of his work.

Related Apple iPhone application available from the iTunes App Store for $1.99.

See "Around the Mall: What's Up" in the May 2010 Smithsonian magazine: p. 26.

ColorForms

March 11, 2010 - January 2, 2011
Lower Level
A selection of artworks from the Hirshhorn's collection and several paintings on loan from the National Gallery's renowned Mark Rothko holdings reveals some of the diverse ways that contemporary artists explore color's evocative possibilities, from the purely optical to the metaphysical. Dating from the post-war era to the present, on view are works by Wolfgang Laib, James Turrell, and Paul Sharits, along with a linear yarn sculpture by Fred Sandback, a spherical sculpture by Anish Kapoor, and luminous paintings by Mark Rothko.

Outdoor Installation: UP7TH

October 2, 2009 - Indefinitely (TBA)
Offsite at the corner of 7th & H Streets, NW
The Hirshhorn Museum debuts new works by animator David Polonsky (b. 1973, Kiev, USSR) on three massive high-resolution LED screens outside above the Gallery Place/Chinatown Metro Station (7th and H Sts.). Several times each hour, a 30-second-long artwork appears.

Outdoor Sculptures

- Indefinitely
Plaza and Sunken Sculpture Garden
-- Hirshhorn Plaza: The plaza redesign, by landscape architect James Urban (completed in 1993), includes granite surfaces, trees and other plantings, areas of lawn, an outdoor pathway, and ramp accessibility from the northwest end of the Ripley Garden. (For more details, see October 1991 Torch article.)

Works on view include: Spatial Concept: Nature (1959-60, cast 1965) by Lucio Fontana; Subcommittee (1991) by Tony Cragg; Needle Tower (1968) Kenneth Snelson; Last Conversation Piece (1994-95) by Juan Munoz; Geometric Mouse: Variation 1, Scale A (1971) by Claes Odenburg; Antipodes (1997) by Jim Sanborn; and Throwback (1976-79) by Tony Smith.

Note: Calder's stabile Two Discs was removed (effective Oct. 7, 2006) for conservation and is now on loan.

2003:
• Brushstroke: This 32-foot-high by 20-foot-wide towering black-and-off-white painted aluminum sculpture reinforced with I-beams is one of the last examples of Roy Lichtenstein's (American, 1923-1997) ongoing engagement with the brushstroke motif. Based on a model created in 1996, it was enlarged and fabricated 2002-2003 by Amaral Custom Fabrications in Massachusetts under the supervision of the Lichtenstein estate. Installed week of September 16, 2003, on the Plaza near Jefferson Drive.

-- Sunken Sculpture Garden: The garden's extensive renovation that included making it wheelchair accessible with new landscaping and reinstallation of approximately 75 contemporary sculptures was completed Sept. 15, 1981.

Works on view include: The Drummer by Flanagan; Nymph by Maillol; Standing Woman (Heroic Woman) by Lachaise; Burghers of Calais, Monument to Balzac, and Walking Man by Rodin; Horse and Rider by Marini. Other sculptors represented include Archipenko, de Kooning, Giacometti, Lipchitz, Manzu, Miro, Moore, Shea, and Smith.

2008:
• For Gordon Bunshaft 2007: This site-specific work by conceptual artist Dan Graham consists of a triangular pavilion with two-way mirrors (with glass doors to enter the structure) and an open wooden lattice that stands approximately 7.5-foot tall. The two-way mirrors allow visitors inside and outside to simultaneously see themselves, each other, and the surrounding landscape. Graham describes this mirror-and-wood structure as a hybrid because one side is derived from traditional Japanese architecture while the other two sides allude to modern corporate architecture and Bunshaft's design of the iconic Hirshhorn building. Installed near the reflecting pool in the Sunken Sculpture Garden May 30, 2008.

1999:
• Are Years What? (for Marianne Moore) 1967: Installed in the street level section adjacent to the sunken sculpture garden, this sculpture created by Mark di Suvero (b. 1933) is composed of industrial I-beams painted bright red and rises some 40 feet from the ground. The 10-ton work refers to a poem by the American poet Marianne Moore (1887-1972). Installed August 22, 1999.

Note: The book A Garden for Art: Outdoor Sculpture at the Hirshhorn Museum is available in the Museum Store for $15.95.

Permanent/Indefinite: Collection Highlights

- Indefinitely
Lower Level, 2nd Floor, 3rd Floor
Collection Highlights is a rotating display of works from the museum's permanent collection. Each installation offers a different grouping of works gathered around a theme or individual artists and provides new ways of looking at its diverse holdings as well as in-depth exploration of notable artists. These installations often display rarely seen or innovative recent works as well as favorite masterpieces.

Lower Level:
This level provides a first view of recent additions to the collection.

2nd Floor: This level also provides a first view of recent additions to the collection, as well as space for traveling exhibitions.

3rd Floor: The galleries offer an in-depth look at 5 individual's work: the groundbreaking mobiles of Alexander Calder; the modern figural paintings of Balthus; a chronicle of Willem de Kooning's expressionist style as it evolved during his 50-year career; the abstract, richly textured creations by Clyfford Still; and the recently restored paintings by D.C.-based Color Field artist Morris Louis. Recent acquisitions are also on view.

Article on Hirshhorn Museum, see Smithsonian magazine: April 2007, pp. 39-40.