In honor of its 40th anniversary, the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden launched a year of celebratory shows and events this month, including two new exhibitions that open today.
“At the Hub of Things: New Views of the Collection” conceives of the museum as a dynamic space where ideas are formed and connections are fostered between artists and visitors. The show groups work by artists from diverse backgrounds and aesthetics thematically. The museum has brought out work from its permanent collection that hasn’t been seen in years from Isa Genzken, Robert Gober, Cai Guo-Qiang, Janine Antoni, Bruce Nauman, and Louise Bourgeois, among others. All works in the show, which is curated by Evelyn Hankins and assistant curator Melissa Ho, are drawn from the Hirshhorn’s collection, with the exception of Yoko Ono’s Sky TV for Washington, on loan from the artist.
Escape, memory, and the thrall of nature are some of the themes broached in “Days of Endless Time,” a staging of installations by moving image artists that accentuate the slower modes of perception and are inspired by our increasingly frenetic pace of living. The show will present 14 works by 13 international artists including Douglas Gordon, Su-Mei Tse, Hans Op de Beeck, and Robert Wilson, and will mark the American debut of Clemens von Wedemeyer’s Afterimage (2013), a recently commissioned work using point cloud imaging software.
“Video and film are cornerstones of the art of our time,” said museum director Melissa Chiu in a statement. “As the Hirshhorn enters its next decade, moving-image art remains an important focus.”
The Hirshhorn also starts its art event series After Hours with an outdoor performance by Zola Jesus on Friday, October 17 and late-night tours of the new exhibitions.
“At the Hub of Things” will be a long-term installation. “Days of Endless Time” is on view through April 12, 2015.