Inner Worlds: Visions from the Hirshhorn Collection

Inner Worlds: Visions from the Hirshhorn Collection features the work of Mary Bauermeister (1934–2023), Yayoi Kusama (1929–2026), and Niki de Saint-Phalle (1930–2002), three trailblazing artists who produced work with distinctive visual languages characterized by expansive proliferations of pattern, repetition, and an ordering of chaos. Born in Germany, Japan, and France, respectively, all three women independently made their way to New York by the early 1960s, where they contributed to the postwar avant-garde through an amalgamation of Abstract Expressionist, Minimalist, Pop, Neo-Dada, and Fluxus influences. Seen together, their artwork attests to the strength of a generation of female artists who achieved international acclaim against great odds, forever altering the trajectory of twentieth-century art. This focused presentation features works drawn from the permanent collection of the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the national museum of modern and contemporary art, in Washington, DC. Founded by an act of Congress and opened to the public in 1974, the Hirshhorn presents groundbreaking exhibitions and programs featuring the most important global art and artists of our time. Inner Worlds: Visions from the Hirshhorn Collection is curated by Betsy Johnson, assistant curator at the Hirshhorn and presented by Halsted A&A Foundation at Wrightwood 659, Chicago.