The Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden Opens on Saturday

The revitalized garden has the flexibility to connect more artworks from the national collection of modern and contemporary art, from outdoor sculpture to time-based work to performance art with more visitors welcome immediately from the National Mall.

Nearly sixty sculptures—an increase of 50% from the previous installation—have been installed in Sculpture Garden and on the Plaza within a landscape of almost 30,000 new trees and plants.

Architect and artist Hiroshi Sugimoto was invited to reimagine Sculpture Garden and add his layer to the palimpsest.  belies his understanding of Gordon Bunshaft’s original campus design. Sugimoto’s plan restores Bunshaft’s long-closed underground passageway as Passage of Reflectance (2026), a highly reflective stainless-steel sculpture that adds light and invites playfulness as it reconnects the garden to the plaza to create a seamless visitor experience.

Sugimoto’s vision also introduces dry‑stacked stone walls—hand‑cut from 950 tons of stone—to emphasize the importance of stone to Bunshaft’s design and within the evolution of sculpture itself. These walls shape distinct areas and invite exploration, especially in the East Galleries, where important Modernist bronzes by Auguste Rodin, Henri Matisse, Henry Moore, and others appear alongside recent acquisitions and commissions by artists from around the world. The stone surfaces provide a timeless backdrop for both sculpture and performance.

Architectural updates throughout the garden expand public access with five entry points, including a wider “front door” on the National Mall and wide ramps from the north and south. New east and west overlooks and flexible spaces for commissions, performances, and time‑based artworks enhance the experience, particularly within the Central Galleries and the West Lawn as well as expanded seating and shade throughout

In the East Galleries, foundational Modernist works—including five sculptures by Moore and two by Barbara Hepworth—reflect Joseph H. Hirshhorn’s relationships with both artists as a friend and patron. Nearby, four sculptures by David Smith, arranged within a central planting bed, highlight his groundbreaking contributions to Abstract Expressionist sculpture through his innovative use of welded metal. Additional works gifted and bequeathed by Hirshhorn include significant sculptures by Rodin, Lucio Fontana, Alberto Giacometti, Willem de Kooning, Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso, Germaine Richier, and Tomonori Toyofuku.

The Central Galleries operate as a revised entry-exit to the reopened passageway and introduce an expanded water feature that can be filled to create a reflective, cooling surface or drained to accommodate seating for performances, artists talk and art education.

Main Image: Sugimoto’s team includes New Material Research Laboratory (NMRL), cofounded in 2008 by Sugimoto and Tomoyuki Sakakida in association with YUN Architecture, in Brooklyn, New York; Quinn Evans, in Washington, D.C., as architect of record; and Rhodeside & Harwell Inc., in Alexandria, Virginia, as landscape architect.