Click here for more photos of the sculpture gardens.
The National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden & the Hirshhorn Museum Sculpture Garden are across the street from each other at the National Mall in Washington DC. It's an engaging, pleasant, shaded stroll through the gardens, which are very much focused on the art. The Hirshhorn Museum & other buildings create an interesting backdrop. And of course, the museums themselves are very much worth visiting. The National Gallery of Art was given to the people of the United States by Andrew W. Mellon, a very wealthy man who served as Secretary of the Treasury from 1921 to 1932. The collection is mostly European & American art from the Renaissance to the present day, with loan exhibitions displaying art from other cultures & periods, The Hirshhorn Museum displays modern art from the period following World War II. It opened in 1974 with the endowment of the collection of another wealthy man, Joseph H. Hirshhorn. The building is an open cylinder set on four massive piers, with a large fountain in the central courtyard, sculptural in itself & controversial once completed. Both sculpture gardens feature modern art pieces.
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