In celebration of its 50th-anniversary season, the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum presents Revolutions: Art from the Hirshhorn Collection, 1860–1960, a major survey of artwork made during a transformative period characterized by new currents in science and philosophy and ever-increasing mechanization. Revolutions captures shifting cultural landscapes through the largely chronological presentation of 208 artworks made by 122 artists—including Francis Bacon, Jean Dubuffet, Lee Krasner, Wilfredo Lam, Georgia O’Keeffe, Pablo Picasso, and Jackson Pollock—during these turbulent and energetic years. Filling the Outer Ring galleries on the Museum’s second floor, the works are all part of the Hirshhorn’s permanent collection, and many were gifts to the nation from founding donor Joseph H. Hirshhorn.

The exhibition also includes contemporary work by 19 artists in the permanent collection, including Abraham Cruzvillegas, Torkwase Dyson, Annette Lemieux, Joel Sternfeld, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Genesis Tramaine, and Flora Yukhnovich, whose practices demonstrate that many of the revolutionary ideas and approaches arising during these 100 years remain critical today.

Revolutions spotlights the rush of art-historical movements and genres that characterized both the arc of Modernism and the ascendancy of abstraction, notably through the work of artists interested in engaging the mind, not just the eye. This breadth was evident in Joseph Hirshhorn’s founding gifts to the Museum. An industrialist, collector, and philanthropist, he donated nearly 6,000 works—including a significant number of sculptures—in anticipation of the Museum’s opening on October 4, 1974, and 6,400 more were gifted upon his death in 1981. Together these gifts constitute one of the most important collections of postwar American and European art in the world. Today the Hirshhorn collection comprises more than 13,130 artworks.

Organized by Hirshhorn Curator Marina Isgro and Assistant Curator Betsy Johnson, with assistance from former Curatorial Assistant Alice Phan, Revolutions: Art from the Hirshhorn Collection, 1860–1960 is supported by a generous grant from The Ellsworth Kelly Foundation. Major support has been provided by Véronique and Marshall Parke and the John and Barbara Vogelstein Foundation. Additional funding has been provided by the Hirshhorn International Council and Hirshhorn Collectors’ Council.