Art Watching At The Hirshhorn Museum

One of my favorite things about living in the Washington, D.C. area is that there are soooo many things to see and explore that are FREE. And free is pretty much my middle name these days. As such, I recently made a list of all the free places I want to check out locally this year and near the top of that list was to go art watch at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. What is the Hirshhorn known for, you ask? Contemporary Art… Super cool modern and contemporary art that is.

In particular, I was excited to see the Belief + Doubt exhibit by Barbara Krugar.

After walking around Barbara Kruger’s visually striking and thought provoking exhibit, we took the escalator upstairs to view the ‘Days of Endless Time’ exhibit. The entire 2nd level was made up of corridors leading you to other corridors showcasing different video installations that carried the same theme of timelessness. Let me tell ya, these videos were so captivating. So captivating that I ended up watching one video for almost 10 minutes before I realized how long I had been sitting there, enthralled by the moving images on the screen.

^^ We weren’t supposed to take pictures in certain areas of the exhibit… So what we did was… Take photos when the guard wasn’t watching. #doitfortheblog #ninjastatus

^^Yes, that’s really Lady Gaga’s face… And yes, she’s really crying.

When we finallllllly made it out of the dark 2nd floor galleries, we hopped on the escalator going up to a much lighter and brighter 3rd floor. The Hirshhorn recently completed a renovation of their 3rd floor galleries and I must say that their opening exhibition, At The Hub Of All Things, was alot of fun to walk through. I’m not an expert when it comes to art so I won’t even try to use fancy highbrow jargon to describe the pieces we saw in this exhibit. But I am human so I can tell you how the exhibit made me feel which was “happy” and “inspired to create.”

As we walked through the exhibit, we came across an indoor/outdoor space with seats and an awesome window view. It’s a shame we couldn’t go out on the balcony which was closed off for safety reasons according to one of the docents that was standing around. Regardless, we took advantage of the view and rested our feet for a little bit before continuing on the finish exploring the exhibit.

^^ From left to right: Department of Justice, National Archives and Federal Trade Commission

^^ Matching grills…

“The Dangerous Logic Of Wooing” by Ernesto Neto

^^ Photos taken by me, Charles and Tarek (all on iPhone 6)

I am so happy I finally made time to see the Hirshhorn Museum in all its glory. My heart and wallet left the museum feeling full with the knowledge that we had gotten our money’s worth of artistic inspiration and enlightenment. Now to decide what place to visit next on my D.C. list… Do you have any requests? I’m all ears since this space is just as much yours as it is mine. Is there any place in D.C. you would like to me to go explore, snap photos of and share with you here on Quaintrelle? Let me know in the comments below :)

Linking Up With: Random Wednesday & Treat Yo Self

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

700 Independence Avenue SW

Washington, DC 20560