With its proximity to the cultural hub of New York City and its quieter suburban and rural landscapes, Connecticut was fertile ground for artists and writers in the period of Modernist movements between 1913 and 1979. Many of these cultural figures are well known through biographical and critical studies. Creative Places seeks to show how place played a significant role in creative work, and how in turn the artists and writers influenced communities in Connecticut.
Joseph Hirshhorn
Patronage
1899 – 1981
- Biography/Description of Work
Joseph Hirshhorn was an entrepreneur, financier and art collector. Born in Latvia, Hirshhorn emigrated to the United States as a child with his widowed mother. Having made his fortune in oil and mining, he began to buy 19th and 20th century artwork. For each piece in his collection, he researched, sought out critics and curators, and visited artist studios. From 1961 to 1976, he lived in an estate on Round Hill in Greenwich, where his displayed his extensive collection which included the work of Willem de Kooning, Raphael Soyer, Jackson Pollock, Larry Rivers, Thomas Eakins, and on the grounds sculptures by Auguste Rodin, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Alberto Giacometti, Alexander Calder, and Henry Moore. He allowed many nonprofit groups to use tours of his sculpture garden for fundraising. In 1966 Hirshhorn donated much of his collection, consisting of 6,000 paintings and sculptures from the 19th and 20th centuries (and constituting one of the world’s largest private art treasures), to the United States government, along with a $2 million endowment. The Smithsonian Institution established the Joseph H. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., in 1966 to hold the collection; the museum opened in 1974. At Hirshhorn’s death in 1981, he willed an additional 6,000 works and a $5 million endowment to the museum.
- Sources view
- Rachel Carley, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Hirshhorn, Joseph H. Hirshhorn Article - New York Times - 1966-11-27, Joseph H. Hirshhorn Obituary - New York Times - 1981-9-1, Joseph H. Hirshhorn Obituary - New York Times - 1981-9-2, http://siarchives.si.edu/collections/siris_arc_217603, http://www.gulfshorelife.com/February-2012/Picasso-Calder-OKeeffe/, http://www.city-data.com/forum/connecticut/213592-horse-island-estate-greenwich.html, http://books.google.com/books?id=F9PjgrwqKqkC&pg=PA192&lpg=PA192&dq=sinclair-robinson+house+greenwich+ct&source=bl&ots=aYqqk8JGLo&sig=sgCVAyPrckDnp3-2Vr04iLxkpJg&hl=en&sa=X&ei=sGEOU5-lK46F0QHrh4GwBQ&ved=0CCwQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=sinclair-robinson%20house%20greenwich%20ct&f=false
- Associated Resource(s)