America. Between Dreams and Realities Selections from the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Collection

Featuring about 100 paintings, photographs, sculptures, and video works by 82 artists drawn from the prestigious collection of the Hirshhorn Museum--the Smithsonian Institution’s national museum of modern art--this exceptional survey offers a broad overview of modern and contemporary American art.

Moving from the early twentieth-century through to the present day, America. Between Dreams and Realities charts the evolving significance of social and political contexts to the making of art in America, a fascinating country of contrasts.

A vast artistic and social panorama

Artworks by luminaries as varied as Louise Bourgeois, Edward Hopper, Arthur Jafa, The Guerilla Girls, Willem de Kooning, Ana Mendieta, Louise Nevelson, Isamu Noguchi, Jackson Pollock, Lorna Simpson, Mark Rothko and Andy Warhol register the impact of major cultural and historical happenings, ranging from the Great Depression to the Civil Rights and anti-war movements of the 1960s to our contemporary moment. Some of them rank among the most celebrated artists of the last century, while others offer visitors striking discoveries.

experience the american dream

This outstanding exhibition focuses on seven themes that reveal how the artists have contributed to defining and reinventing the American dream. It uncovers how artists have variously grappled with questions of identity and the challenges of globalization, the realities of everyday life in America and the complexities of its landscapes, technological revolutions as well as political ones.

An exclusive exhibition tailor-made for the mnbaq

An exhibition organized by the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC, presented exclusively in Quebec City. Curatorship : André Gilbert, Curator of Exhibitions, MNBAQ and Katherine Markoski, Guest Curator, HMSG.

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^Credits

¹ (Left) Wayne Gonzales, Pentagon, 2004-2005. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC © Wayne Gonzales. Courtesy the artist and Stephen Friedman Gallery, London. / (Right) Beverly Semmes, Red Dress, 1992. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC © Beverly Semmes. Courtesy the artist and Susan Inglett Gallery, NYC. Photos: Idra Labrie

² Henry Taylor, If I don't, someone should as you are so deserving, 2020. Acrylique sur toile, 243,8 × 304,8 × 7,6 cm. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC © Henry Taylor. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Idra Labrie

³ Rosalyn Drexler, Chubby Checker, 1964. Oil and acrylic with photomechanical reproductions on canvas, 190.3 × 165.6 cm. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1966 (66.1422) © 2022 Rosalyn Drexler / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York

⁴ Malcolm Morley, Beach Scene, ca. 1968. Acrylic on canvas, 279.4 × 228.2 cm. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1972 (72.207) © the Estate of Malcolm Morley, Courtesy Sperone Westwater, New York

⁵ Andy Warhol, Marylin Monroe's Lips, 1962. Acrylic, screenprint ink and graphite on canvas, panel A (left): 210.2 × 205.1 cm, panel B (right): 210.2 × 209.2 cm. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1972 (72.313) © 2022 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SOCAN

⁶ Edward Hopper, Hotel by a Railroad, ca. 1952. Oil on canvas, 79.4 × 101.9 cm. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, Gift of the Joseph H. Hirshhorn Foundation, 1966 (66.2507) © 2021 Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY / SOCAN