We visited the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden yesterday afternoon. It’s the circular — actually, cylindrical — building on the Mall. Part of the Smithsonian Institution, it features a large collection of modern and abstract paintings and sculptures. It opened to the public in 1969 with the donated collection of financier Joseph H. Hirshhorn. He kept collecting, however, and upon his death in 1981, his bequest nearly doubled the size of the museum’s collection.

The architecture is striking and the art is interesting. Some of it seems kind of ’60s-ish and trite, now. For example, you can find several sculptures made of recycled car parts that would look at home at the Ann Arbor Art Fairs with water spouting out of them. Also, they often have silly titles (”Are Years What? For Marianne Moore” by Mark di Suvero, for a giant red painted steel structure with another piece of steel hanging from a cable), as if the artist disdains the idea of explaining something about his/her work.

So: Today’s activity is match the sculptures in the photos below with their titles, listed below the photos. The first person to answer them all correctly will win a high-priced coffee drink. (Leave your correct email address so I can contact you.) If you can’t see the whole sculpture in the thumbnail below, click on it to see the full image.

The sculptures

The titles
A. King and Queen
B. Monument to Balzac
C. Two-Piece Reclining Figure: Points
D. Last Conversation Piece
E. Song of the Little Frog
F. Untitled
G. Boccioni’s Fist – Lines of Force II
H. Post-Balzac
I. Column Of Peace
J. Monsoon Drift
K. Voltri XV
L. Seated Woman on a Bench