I’ve made it to the Hirshhorn Museum of Modern Art and I must say that it was well worth the effort even with the building undergoing a fairly impressive amount of renovations.
It appears that a lot of the Smithsonian facilities along the Mall (including my favourite National Air and Space Museum which was unfortunately closed during this visit) were taking advantage of the pandemic to push forward these big renovation projects to prepare the museums for the next generation of visitors.
Anyway, modern art is something that can be really hit or miss as you either get it or you don’t.
I won’t claim to be the most artistically aware person in the world but there were some notable exhibits here that were amazingly cool.
Let’s start with the building itself which is circular. From the outside, it kind of reminded me of the Great Western Forum in Los Angeles or a smaller scaled version of Madison Square Garden once I figured out that I needed to look *UP* after exiting Penn Station as MSG sits on top of that railway station!
I’m sure the shape of the building presented quite a challenge for displaying the artwork on walls that are constantly curving. Mark Bradford’s “Pickett’s Charge” takes full advantage of the curved walls with these massive panels of paper on canvas that takes up an entire floor! The textures and the colours are mesmerising and if you look closely enough you can indeed see the Civil War figures depicted in that famous military encounter.
Another exhibit that took up most of the floor it was installed upon was Sam Gilliam’s “Full Circle”. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Gilliam was born in Tupelo MS which of course was the birthplace of another artistic icon more often associated with Memphis TN.
Perhaps I was definitely feeling a bit peckish but I couldn’t help but think that his round pieces of art looked an awful lot like some very tasty pizzas. When I read the description of how these tondos were actually created by combining the paint with whatever materials he could use to thicken up the pigments (including studio debris) which he’d then rake to get the distinctive textures and colour dispersal, I really didn’t think I was that far off. But like “Pickett’s Charge”, you could spend hours getting lost in the miasma of colour and subsequent visits see something completely new.
My favourite of the exhibits was “Put It This Way” featuring the art of women and gender non-conforming artists. That alone would have made the exhibit worth viewing but the Guerrilla Girls of New York City really hammers home how under-represented and unfairly compensated female artists are in many art museums despite harrowing statistics such as 85% of the nude pieces in the NY Metropolitan Museum of Art being female.
Our society still has a long way to go to proper equality and the Guerrilla Girls shine a very harsh light upon it. Even though I’m not a rabid fan of modern art, I do consider myself a big fan of women artists and the art that they create. I’ve found that their stories are often far more complex and nuanced and likely to make someone have to really think about what they’re seeing.
One such play entitled “Still. Birth. A play about pregnancy loss.” comes to mind written by the very talented Robyne Parrish and Coley Campany which has taken on a life of it’s own with discussions beyond the play as well as a call to action on matters of interest such as the recent deplorable decision in the Dobbs case at the Supreme Court severely curtailing the right of women to bodily autonomy.
The point of art is to get people to reflect and think of the world they see through an emotional lens and it’s inevitable that one will be changed in some way afterward and often that revelation can be a profound one.
Mission accomplished! 🙂
