Talks

Summer conservation interns discuss the cleaning and preservation of outdoor sculpture.

Presented in collaboration with the National Museum of African Art, Ethiopian-born American artist Julie Mehretu speaks about her practice as part of the Hirshhorn’s ongoing Meet the Artist series.

Curatorial research assistant and UMD doctoral candidate Michael Vetter discusses Kiepenkerl by Jeff Koons, now on display in the Hirshhorn Museum Lobby.

As part of the Hirshhorn's ongoing 40th anniversary celebration, director Melissa Chiu welcomes former director Jim Demetrion for a discussion of the legacy and future of the museum.

Curator Kelly Gordon leads a tour of Days of Endless Time. Groups meet at the Information Desk in the Hirshhorn Lobby.

Kenjiro Okazaki has been exploring notions of time and region in the work of Ukrainian-born American artists John D. Graham and David Davidovich Burliuk. After examining their drawings in various Smithsonian collections, Okazaki conducts live-action gestural studies and uses digital technology to analyze and reproduce the characteristics unique to each artist.

Curatorial research assistant and UMD doctoral candidate Michael Vetter discusses Lucian Freud’s Nude with Leg Up (Leigh Bowery), 1992, on view in At the Hub of Things: New Views of the Collection.

Associate curator Melissa Ho discusses works by Cai Guo-Qiang, Jan Dibbets, Richard Long, and Brice Marden.

Curator Evelyn Hankins discusses Lawrence Weiner’s "A RUBBER BALL THROWN ON THE SEA, Cat. No. 146," 1969 on view in "At the Hub of Things: New Views of the Collection."

Spencer Finch works in a variety of media, including painting, photography, sculpture, and installation. Often recreating the experience of natural phenomena through artificial constructions, Finch’s work raises questions about perception, memory, experience, and time. The artist is known for his light-based installations, including "Cloud (H2O)," 2006, on view in the Hirshhorn’s 40th anniversary exhibition "At the Hub of Things: New Views of the Collection." Mimicking the molecular structure of water through an arrangement of suspended light bulbs, the sculpture is a glowing representation of water vapor that hovers between representation and abstraction. Join us as Finch speaks about his work as part of the Museum’s ongoing Meet the Artist series.

Over the past forty years, New York–based artist Charles Simonds has been creating an imaginative body of work investigating the relationship between humans and their environment. Combining sculpture, architecture, performance, and community planning, Simonds’s oeuvre centers on an exploration of the way people’s beliefs are reflected in the structures they build. His sculpture "Rock Flower" will be on view in "Speculative Forms." Join us as the artist discusses his inventive practice, from his miniature dwellings to his large-scale installations.

The Curators in Conversation series concentrates on creativity—what inspires curiosity, motivates imagination, and produces meaning. The newly inaugurated platform will continue with cultural sociologist and best-selling author Sarah Thornton. She will discuss the issues behind her new book, "33 Artists in 3 Acts," which examines the role of artists around the world today. Thornton interviewed 130 artists before settling on the ones who feature in her narratives, including Maurizio Cattelan, Damien Hirst, Rashid Johnson, Jeff Koons, Laurie Simmons, Martha Rosler, and Andrea Fraser. Sarah Thornton is the author of "Seven Days in the Art World," a witty behind-the-scenes account of the institutions that contribute to an artist’s place in art history. She has been the chief writer on contemporary art for "The Economist" and has contributed to many publications, television programs, and radio broadcasts. Thornton holds a BA in art history and a PhD in sociology.

Artist Jae Ko discusses her abstract sculpture "Untitled (JK 103)," made from rolled paper and sumi ink.

Assistant curator Melissa Ho leads a tour of "Salvatore Scarpitta: Traveler," providing an overview of the artist’s career.

In conjunction with the 40th anniversary exhibition "Days of Endless Time," the Hirshhorn is pleased to collaborate with "Lapham’s Quarterly" on its Fall 2014 issue, Time. The magazine, which serves as the companion publication to the Hirshhorn’s exhibition, includes a broad range of writing related to the focus of the exhibition, as well as images from many of the time-based installations on view at the Museum. Join us for an engaging conversation moderated by "Lapham’s Quarterly" founder and editor Lewis H. Lapham, who will be joined by Jay Griffiths, author of "A Sideways Look at Time," and Jim Holt, author of "Why Does the World Exist?: An Existential Detective Story."

Assistant curator Mika Yoshitake leads a tour of "Days of Endless Time," with artists David Claerbout, Flatform, Siebren Versteeg, Clemens von Wedemeyer and Matthew Weinstein.

A fascinating and singular figure in postwar art, Salvatore Scarpitta (1919–2007) created a powerful body of work that ranges from nonobjective abstraction to radical realism. Deeply admired in Europe, where he began his career, the artist has yet to be fully recognized in his native United States. Please join us for an informative dialogue between Germano Celant, artistic director of the Prada Foundation and former senior curator of contemporary art at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and Paul Schimmel, former chief curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and organizer of "Destroy the Picture: Painting the Void 1949–1962." They will discuss Scarpitta’s significant contribution to visual art, his critical reception, and his first-hand experience of World War II.

Theodore Prescott, sculptor and writer, will talk about his experience assisting Salvatore Scarpitta (1919– 2007) in the creation of "Sal Cragar" and other racecars in the 1960s. A former student and friend of Scarpitta who accompanied him to the track many times, Prescott will also discuss the artist’s transition from making cars for display in the gallery to actual racing. A fascinating and singular figure in postwar art, Scarpitta created a powerful body of work that ranges from nonobjective abstraction to radical realism. Scarpitta’s career linked the worlds of art and car racing, moving from the avant-garde cultural circles of postwar Rome to the banked dirt oval speedways of rural Maryland and Pennsylvania. Focusing on his shaped and wrapped canvases, race cars, and sleds, "Salvatore Scarpitta: Traveler" illuminates themes that occupied the artist throughout his life: risk, movement, death, and rebirth. Deeply admired in Europe where he began his career, Scarpitta has yet to be fully recognized in his native United States. This will be the first solo presentation of his work at an American museum in over a decade, and the first ever on the East Coast.

Photographer and Georgetown professor Mike Osborne discusses :Sitebound: Photography from the Collection. The talk will be introduced by Hirshhorn assistant curator Mika Yoshitake.

Over the past three decades, Christian Marclay has produced a remarkable variety of works exploring the convergence of sight and sound, including his award-winning 24-hour film The Clock, 2010. His oeuvre spans a range of mediums, including performance, solo recording, compilation, sculpture, photography, painting, video, and multimedia installation. Much of the artist’s work is based on readymade images, objects, texts, and films. His politically resonant fourteen-minute video installation Guitar Drag, 2000—part of the exhibition Damage Control: Art and Destruction Since 1950—depicts a loudly amplified electric guitar being violently dragged along a Texas country road by a pickup truck, alluding to the 1998 murder of James Byrd Jr. The artist will discuss his creative process with Damage Control co-curator Russell Ferguson, professor of art at UCLA.