This museum of modern and contemporary art is named after Latvian-born Joseph H. Hirshhorn, who, in 1966, donated his vast collection -- more than 4,000 drawings and paintings and 2,000 pieces of sculpture -- to the United States "as a small repayment for what this nation has done for me and others like me who arrived here as immigrants." The Hirshhorn opened in 1974 to display these works,...
In a city filled with giant marble masterpieces designed in a kaleidoscopic blend of over-the-top, pre-20th century architectural styles, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is refreshingly modern. When your head is swimming with Beaux-Arts cornices and big, bronze statues, the Hirshhorn’s simple, cylindrical beauty is quite inviting. Its collections are just as strikingly modern as its...