Olga Hirshhorn, the collector and widow of Hirshhorn Museum founder Joseph Hirshhorn, has passed away at the age of 95. “I had to choose whether to learn about art or finance or mining,” Mrs. Hirshhorn said of her early years married to her husband, “and I chose art.” (more…)
Peter Coffin, Untitled (Dog), 2012. Courtesy Hirshhorn Museum.
Now through October 6, the work of Peter Coffin is on view throughout the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington DC. Here and There presents this collection of work through an installation that demands the viewer engage in the play of a hunt, or the happenstance of casual encounter. Photography, sculpture, video installation and lithography are a few of Coffin’s mediums scattered through both the museum and its online site. A checklist that serves as a guide to the exhibition can be found on the museum’s website.
Peter Coffin, Untitled (Design for Colby Poster Company) (2008), Courtesy Hirshhorn Museum. (more…)
The Washington Post has published an extensive look at the failure of the Hirshhorn “bubble” project, which saw the departure of several museum board members, and a readdress of the museum’s core mission. Slated to cost between $12.5 million and $15.5 million, the bubble would have also operated at a loss of $2.8 million annually, which added to the increasingly poor morale around the project. The museum is currently in recovery mode, with sponsors, donors and staff taking a moment to gather themselves. “We’ve hit a rough patch, but they say they want it to succeed and move on,” Smithsonian Undersecretary Richard Kurin says. (more…)
The Hirshhorn Museum’s proposed “Seasonal Inflatable Sculpture Project,” informally referred to as “the Bubble,” has been officially decided against, after years of debate and wrangling over its installation on the museum’s property on the National Mall. The news comes shortly after Hirshhorn director Richard Koshalek announced his decision to resign after a split vote on the Bubble several weeks ago. “If the board were more together and if we were seeing more results of that, then we might have made a different decision,” Smithsonian Undersecretary Richard Kurin said. “Because it’s divided, it makes it hard to move forward.” (more…)
Hirshhorn Museum Director Richard Koshalek will resign from his position by the end of the year, following a split vote decision on the future of the museum’s proposed architectural “bubble,” which was planned to emerge from the top of the building’s circular structure. The project has faced a series of major delays and budgetary setbacks since its 2009 announcement. “The board was divided and could not reach a decision,” said Smithsonian Undersecretary Richard Kurin. “I think Richard was looking for a very broad endorsement, and that didn’t happen. It wasn’t about the Bubble and what it could do architecturally or what it could do for the Hirshhorn. It was much more about finances going forward.”
William Turnbull in 1956 via The Guardian
Artist William Turnbull has died at the age of 90. His diverse artistic production included abstract painting, figurative and minimalist metal sculpture. He was considered a forerunner to the Pop Art movement and was one the Abstract Expressionist’s earliest adopters. His work is part of major public collections including the Tate, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. and the Victoria and Albert Museum, among others. (more…)
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Andy Warhol, Shadows (1978-79), installation view. All photos via Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.
Andy Warhol’s silkscreened series Shadows is on view now at Washington’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Shadows was created during the last decade of Warhol’s life and consists of 102 prints of shadows produced in his studio. The paintings are exhibited on an uninterrupted wall, providing a unique opportunity to view the series curving through the museum’s galleries. The Shadow series departs from Warhol’s usual pop style as he generated the shadows himself in his studio, creating abstract forms not normally seen in his work.
