It’s easy to get lost in the marble halls and presidential portraits that have defined the architectural and artistic aesthetic of the nation’s capital. But dig a little deeper, and it becomes clear that a steady spring of contemporary perspectives flows throughout the District.
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
7TH STREET SW AND INDEPENDENCE AVE SW
DESIGNED BY ARCHITECT Gordon Bunshaft and opened in 1974, the Hirshhorn Museum’s drum-shaped home is situated perfectly between the US Capitol and the Washington Monument.
Also part of the Hirshhorn’s ambitious fall lineup is Feel the Sun in Your Mouth: Recent Acquisitions. The thoughtful debut of more than two dozen works from the Hirshhorn collection aims to shine a light on the interconnectedness between the world and ourselves through artists’ global perspectives. “One such thread that became visible almost immediately was art that evokes a heightened awareness of bodily sensation through a poetic conflation of the natural and the man-made,” says assistant curator Betsy Johnson of how the exhibition took shape. “On some level, many of the artists on view in Feel the Sun in Your Mouth: Recent Acquisitions seem to be exploring where and how the romantic sublime still exists today. We regularly experience a separation of body and mind today that is the by product of the frenetic pace of life and our simultaneous existence in both virtual and terrestrial realms. These artists seem to be looking for a way to reintegrate body and mind without yearning for the past but rather by embracing the palimpsest of the present moment.”
Artist and architect Hiroshi Sugimoto has been tapped to lead the upcoming renovation of the museum’s Sculpture Garden. Spanning works from August Rodin to Yayoi Kusama, the garden is one of D.C.’s tucked away gems. It’s small, but it begs the visitor to put down a picnic blanket and stay awhile.
The Phillips Collection
1600 21ST STREET NW
WELL WORTH THE trip away from the Mall is the Phillips Collection, in the Dupont Circle neighborhood. Boasting the title America’s First Museum of Modern Art, the Phillips comprises a maze of intimate galleries in the 1897 home of founder Duncan Phillips and two modern additions to the complex. The meditative Wax Room, by Wolfgang Laib is a small space lined with 440 pounds of golden-hued beeswax and lit by a single uncovered bulb, is the Phillips’ first permanently installed artwork since the Rothko Room in 1960.
D.C. Alley Museum
N STREET NW AND 9TH STREET NW
HIDDEN WITHIN A city block in the southwest corner of the Shaw neighborhood, Blagden Alley is an H-shaped network of historic alleyways where brick walls and metal doors have become the canvases for local artists. Co-founded by Lisa Marie Thalhammer and Bill Warrell, the D.C. Alley Museum is funded by the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities grant program.
National Museum of Women in the Arts
1250 NEW YORK AVENUE NW
THE NEARBY NATIONAL Museum of Women in the Arts offers a femme-focused retreat at the center of a city famous for its monumental tributes to men. Through collections that showcase shared connections and experiences, NMWA aims to celebrate women artists—both historical and contemporary—and open up a dialogue on the gender disparities that have long plagued the art world.
National Gallery of Art, East Building
PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE NW AND 4TH STREET NW
A QUICK WALK from the Hirshhorn across the Mall is the I. M. Pei–designed east wing of the National Gallery, home to an expansive collection of the museum’s modern and contemporary artworks. Visitors to the East Building’s atrium are welcomed by Alexander Calder’s hulking steel and-aluminum mobile, continually changing shape overhead on the whims of air currents.
Words and photographs by
CAROLINE WERTZ