The public unveiling of the renovated Sculpture Garden at the Hirshhorn Museum/By Patricia Leslie, Oct. 31, 2026
The Smithsonian's new Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden dumbfounded me, the effects as sweeping and beautiful as gardens and art can be.
They promised us a "rose garden," and ladies and gents, we get much more than that.
After a four-year renovation by Hiroshi Sugimoto who designed the landscaping, the stoneworks, and the tunnel sculpture, too, the garden re-opened on Halloween (with the only known association I can find, today's All Saints Day who must have bequeathed their blessings).
But before I go over the top, let me try to rein in my enthusiasm and say the garden and sculpture are absolutely breathtaking, the design! The landscape! And (lest I forget): the sculptures which number almost 60 (before they are all installed) compared to the previous total of 35.
Below are some of the sculptures which fascinated me. How does your garden grow?
At the Hirshhorn's new Sculpture Garden, this couple studies Huma Bhabha's 1962, We Come in Peace, bronze and paint, Joseph H. Hirshhorn Purchase Fund, 2020/By Patricia Leslie, Oct. 31, 2026
Bhabha asks us to reflect on how we greet the unfamiliar, whether with trust or aggression, peace or violence.
Centered in the distance, looking like the bottoms of two white frying pans glued together, is Elmgreen & Dragset's Eight. (See below.)
Another view of We Come in Peace at the Hirshhorn Museum's new Sculpture Garden/By Patricia Leslie, Oct. 31, 2026
What do they see at the Hirshhorn Museum's new Sculpture Garden? The clouds were aiming for the garden indeed!/By Patricia Leslie, Oct. 31, 2026
Sculptures, landscaping, and people below at the Hirshhorn Museum's new Sculpture Garden/By Patricia Leslie, Oct. 31, 2026
And another view from the overlook at the Hirshhorn Museum's new Sculpture Garden with, on the upper right quadrant, the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian on the left and the National Air and Space Museum on the right (which reminds me, at least from this angle, of a cyber-truck)/By Patricia Leslie, Oct. 31, 2026
Henry Moore, Castleford, England, 1898–1986, King and Queen, 1952–1953/cast 195, bronze, gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1966 at the Hirshhorn Museum's new Sculpture Garden/By Patricia Leslie, Oct. 31, 2026
From two labels: This was cast the same year, 1953, that Queen Elizabeth was crowned queen. Moore was partly inspired by the sculpture in the British Museum of an Egyptian royal couple from the 18th century B.C. whose humble postures and stoic expressions imply the dignity and fortitude of everyday people in Europe following World War II.
Behind these royal members are some of the garden's stunning stacked-stone walls designed by the museum's garden and landscape designer, Hiroshi Sugimoto an sculptor himself.
The wall materials come from approximately 950 tons of stone left from residual material from construction blasting in Gloucester, Massachusetts, where they were intended to be crushed and used for gravel.
It took 44 shipments to get them to the Hirshhorn where 10 Japanese stonemasons hand-stacked them over several months using a centuries-old technique employed in castle construction. Each wall was conceived with a distinct character, some the masons described as “male” or
“female.”
(Thank you, Hirshhorn, for recycling!)
A view of the Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden from another overlook /By Patricia Leslie, Oct. 31, 2026
Barbara Hepworth, 1903–1975, Curved Form: Bryer II, 1961, bronze and metal wire, Joseph H. Hirshhorn Bequest, 1981, at the Hirshhorn Museum's new Sculpture Garden/By Patricia Leslie, Oct. 31, 2026
The label: The Hirshhorn holds an extensive collection of work by Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth, two of the twentieth century’s most renowned British sculptors. The artists—both friends and rivals—are known for their evolution of abstract sculpture, including their work in the Surrealist biomorphic style. Hepworth's later works were inspired by a landscape on the southern
coast of England.
A Wish Tree for Washington, D.C., 2007 by Yoko Ono, b. 1933, gift of the artist, at the Hirshhorn Museum's new Sculpture Garden/By Patricia Leslie, Oct. 31, 2026
All supplies to make and hang a wish or wishes are provided.
This tree is like "wish trees" Yoko Ono has planted around the world. One has been up at the Hirshhorn several times before now, including during the administrations of George Bush and Dick Cheney, 2001-2009, when I made wishes (which did not come true then; one, much later).
And my tour group saw one at The Peace Palace at The Hague, Netherlands in 2024.
The label: The wishes are gathered and saved at the Imagine Peace Tower Yoko One has created in Reykjavík, Iceland. She hopes their collective power will ‘‘give encouragement, inspiration and a sense of solidarity in a world now filled with fear and confusion. Let us come together to realize a peaceful world.”
Auguste Rodin, 1840-1917, Burghers of Calais 1884–1889/cast 1953–1959, bronze, gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1966, at the Hirshhorn Museum's new Sculpture Garden/By Patricia Leslie, Oct. 31, 2026
The label says The Burghers of Calais, "convey the intense psychological distress felt by that city’s 14th-century citizens, who suffered a devastating military defeat and had to turn over their city’s keys to the English."
Henri Matisse, 1869–1954, The Back I–IV, 1909–1931/cast 1959–1960, bronze, gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1966, at the Hirshhorn Museum's new Sculpture Garden/By Patricia Leslie, Oct. 31, 2026
The label: Most of Henri Matisse’s sculptures are modest in scale, but in 1909 he made his first life-size figure. By choosing relief, rather than in-the-round sculpture, he could explore in solid yet two-dimensional form the problems of style that challenged him in various paintings at that time. The initial version (known as Back 0) no longer exists; it was destroyed when Matisse remade it into Back 1. Both versions presented an expressively modeled nude with muscular anatomy and contorted pose—features that he had absorbed from Auguste Rodin’s art.
The Back sculptures were not originally created as a series and never exhibited together during the artist's lifetime.
David Smith, 1906–1965, Auburn Queen, 1959, bronze, gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1966, at the Hirshhorn Museum's new Sculpture Garden/By Patricia Leslie, Oct. 31, 2026
The label: Born in Indiana, where he once worked on an auto-production line, David Smith was inspired by the early Cubist sculptures of Pablo Picasso and Julio Gonzalez, which broke from traditional cast bronze in favor of welded metal. Smith is often acknowledged as the first American to make this leap. His final series reveal his experiments with burnishing to refract and reflect shifting light.
David Smith, 1906–1965, Cubi XII, 1963, stainless steel, gift of the Joseph H. Hirshhorn Foundation, 1972, at the Hirshhorn Museum's new Sculpture Garden/By Patricia Leslie, Oct. 31, 2026
The label: The artist was adamant that the Cubi be shown outdoors, where the play of sunshine creates a dynamic condition of perpetual flux: light dancing on its surface creates a feeling of movement, while the object is simultaneously still and rooted in place. On the right, see the shadow Rodin's Monument to Balzac (below).
Auguste Rodin, 1840–1917, Monument to Balzac 1891–1898/cast 1965–1966, bronze, gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1966, at the Hirshhorn Museum's new Sculpture Garden/By Patricia Leslie, Oct. 31, 2026
Making mini sculpture gardens at the Hirshhorn Museum's new Sculpture Garden/By Patricia Leslie, Oct. 31, 2026
Auguste Rodin, 1840–1917, Walking Man, 1900/enlarged 1905/cast 1962, bronze, gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1966, at the Hirshhorn Museum's new Sculpture Garden/By Patricia Leslie, Oct. 31, 2026
Germain Richier, 1902-1959, Grain, 1955, bronze, gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1966, at the Hirshhorn Museum's new Sculpture Garden/By Patricia Leslie, Oct. 31, 2026
The label: After World War II, Richier’s sculptural style and ideas changed dramatically. She began to merge human bodies with animal, insect, and vegetable shapes to create unnaturally mutated hybrid creatures. Often appearing mangled or flayed, with exposed skeletons, her figures serve as haunting reminders of past destruction and harbingers of impending
death. The title of this work refers to wheat, corn, or rice, but the figure’s forms and pose suggest a grasshopper or locust—that is, a destroyer of crops, a plague that can bring famine.
Alberto Giacometti, 1901–1966, Monumental Head, 1960, bronze,
gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1966, at the Hirshhorn Museum's new Sculpture Garden/By Patricia Leslie, Oct. 31, 2026
The label: Haunted by the specter of death after World War III, Giacometti sculpted giant figures with staring eyes. The rough, gouged surfaces of his bronzes evoke the ravages of physical abuse, as if the flesh had been burnt or flayed. It was partly inspired by the colossal Byzantine stone, which Giacometti had seen in the Capitoline Museum, Rome.
Jeff Koons, b. 1955, Kiepenkerl, 1987, stainless steel, Joseph H. Hirshhorn Purchase Fund and Smithsonian Collections Acquisition Program, 1998, at the Hirshhorn Museum's new Sculpture Garden/By Patricia Leslie, Oct. 31, 2026
The label: This sculpture echoes a sandstone original (c. 1895) created by August Schmiemann for a town square in Munster, Germany, that depicted a peasant merchant carrying food on his back. It was destroyed in World War II, and a bronze replica was created by Albert Mazzetti Jr. in 1953 for the same location. When Jeff Koons was invited to contribute to the 1987 Skulptur Projekte Munster—a major international art show—he decided to create his own version in mirror-polished stainless steel, which was installed in place of the bronze throughout the course of the exhibition.
Note Hiroshi Sugimoto's stoneworks.
Chatchai Puipia, b. 1964, Wish You Were Here, 2008, bronze, gift of Aey Phanachet and Roger Evans in honor of the Hirshhorn’s 50th anniversary, 2025, at the Hirshhorn Museum's new Sculpture Garden/By Patricia Leslie, Oct. 31, 2026
The label: Chatchai Puipia is a renowned Thai artist (one of ten new ones at the Hirshhorn) who works in both painting and sculpture, often using his own body as subject. Wish You Were Here is a monumental sculpture of his lower body clothed in a wrap known as a pha khao ma, resting on his back with legs crossed as though he lies dreaming in the grass.
Puipia originally made the work for a major hotel/shopping center development (never installed) to meditate upon the disparity between the fast pace of evolving Thai culture and its traditional dreams and ideals. This contrast between old and new, personal and public, also resonates against the formality of the National Mall.
(Writer's note: I am lying at the beach, dreaming and Glad you aren't here since I try to keep my body under the sand, away from public viewing. Who cares?)
Another view of Puipia's Wish You Were Here, with the Hirshhorn Museum on the left and the tops of the Smithsonian Castle and Washington Monument on the right, at the Hirshhorn Museum's new Sculpture Garden/By Patricia Leslie, Oct. 31, 2026
Lauren Halsey, b. 1987, keepers of the krown (antoinette grace halsey),
2024, glass fiber–reinforced concrete and mixed media with a column and a bench, Joseph H. Hirshhorn Purchase Fund, 2026, at the Hirshhorn Museum's new Sculpture Garden/By Patricia Leslie, Oct. 31, 2026
If this looks like a grandma, that's because it is a grandma.
From the label: Lauren Halsey (one of ten new artists at the Hirshhorn) was born in South Central Los Angeles, "the foundation and main inspiration for her work." This is one of six columns she created for the 2024 Venice Biennale. Here she wraps the form of an Ancient Egyptian column in impressions from various signs, posters, and advertisements she found in her neighborhood, a portrait of her grandmother, Antoinette Grace Halsey, at the top.
Kaws, b. 1974, Shelter, 2026, bronze, Joseph H. Hirshhorn Purchase Fund, 2026, at the Hirshhorn Museum's new Sculpture Garden/By Patricia Leslie, Oct. 31, 2026
The label: Kaws began working as a graffiti artist in New York in the 1990s. His wide-ranging practice features a cast of characters (some original, some inspired by popular cartoons or brand mascots) and spans painting, sculpture, video, product design, and collaborations with celebrated names in music, fashion, gaming, and design.
Shelter is one of the Hirshhorn's new commissions.
Hiroshi Sugimoto, b. 1948, Passage of Reflectance, 2026; stainless steel;
Joseph H. Hirshhorn Purchase Fund, 2026, at the Hirshhorn Museum's new Sculpture Garden/By Patricia Leslie, Oct. 31, 2026
The label: As a sculptor, Hiroshi Sugimoto (who redesigned the Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden between 2020 and 2026) is interested in how objects can help us visualize certain mathematical principles that govern our physical world yet often remain unseen.
Passage of Reflectance connects the central garden to the museum, and an immersive artwork defined by two curving lines, gradually converging inward to
the center of the Museum’s circular building and theoretically continuing on to infinity.
The stainless-steel walls used to trace these lines are treated so that their mirrored reflections are distorted, an effect the artist equates to that of an Impressionist painting.
This underground passage has reopened for the first time since the early 1980s.
At the other end of Passage of Reflectance are steps and the connection to the museum. In the distance, centered, is Elmgreen & Dragset's Eight, below, and beyond it can be seen, the National Archives
At the Hirshhorn Museum's new Sculpture Garden/By Patricia Leslie, Oct. 31, 2026
Elmgreen & Dragset, founded 1995, Michael Elmgreen, b. 1961 and Ingar Dragset, b.1969, Eight, 2026, steel, stainless steel, aluminum, concrete, lacquer, and lights, Joseph H. Hirshhorn Purchase Fund with generous support from the New Carlsberg Foundation, 2026, at the Hirshhorn Museum's new Sculpture Garden/By Patricia Leslie, Oct. 31, 2026
The label: The artist duo Elmgreen & Dragset are known for large-scale public works that make the familiar feel new and magical. Eight is a monumental sculpture of a swimming pool, empty, tipped on end, with its bright-blue interior exposed. The striking curves of its vertical figure 8, set against the backdrop of the curved Hirshhorn Museum building just beyond, are playful and alluring, but also a paradox: this is a pool in which one cannot swim.
For many around the world, a private swimming pool is a status symbol. The artists ask us to consider what we are truly aspiring to, and what happens when we finally get what we want . . . and it’s empty.
Eight is another of the Hirshhorn's new commissions.
Numbers matter to some: Although the garden size is presented as 1.3 acres, it seems much larger. Twenty new sculptures not previously shown at the Hirshhorn will soon or now stand in the garden, including 12 recent acquisitions and seven commissions. There are 38 artists in the reinstallation compared to the previous 22 before renovation, with 16 living artists and a total of 22 international sculptors.
The ten new artists are Woody De Othello, Theaster Gates (loan), Mark Grotjahn (gift), Raven Halfmoon, Lauren Halsey, Liz Larner, Chatchai Puipia (gift), Pedro Reyes, Arlene Shechet, and Hiroshi Sugimoto (the garden's, the landscape's, the stone wall's and the tunnel's designer).
Congress established the Hirshhorn Museum and Garden in 1966 when Joseph Hirshhorn gave his collection to the nation, and it officially opened in 1974.
The revitalization of the garden was announced in 2019 and ground was broken almost four years ago.
The new entrance ways and overlooks welcome the 35 million National Mall visitors who can walk through a short underground passageway from the sculpture garden up the few stairs to the Hirshhorn Museum.
What: The Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
When: The garden, open daily, 10 a.m.- 5:30 p.m.; the museum, Monday, 12 - 5:30 p.m.; Tuesday - Sunday, 10 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. (The cafe closes at 5 p.m.)
Closed on Christmas Day.
No timed entry required.
Where: The corner of Independence Ave. SW and 7th St. SW. Washington, D.C. 20560
How much: It's free! (Donations, welcome.)
For more information: See the website and/or call 202-633-1000
Patricialesli@gmail.com
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