Joseph Hirshhorn, biased White man

OPINION:

A recent visit to Washington’s Hirshhorn Museum of Modern Art on the National Mall sadly demonstrates that the art world is not immune from the current progressive attempt to racialize every aspect of our society.

Some weeks ago, my wife and I found the time to visit the Hirshhorn Museum, and we spent some time viewing a new exhibition that covers the art scene over the 50 years since the museum’s opening.

It was odd to note that the exhibition was titled “Revolutions,” since it actually presented the steady evolution of predominantly American art in the years since the museum’s opening. Perhaps “Revolutions” has a greater PR appeal deemed necessary to attract more visitors. But perhaps it serves as a hint of an attempt to overturn certain fundamental notions that have undergirded the American art scene for generations.

Interspersed among the works in the exhibition from Hirshhorn’s permanent collection (the works of art generously donated by Joseph Hirshhorn) were works rarely seen by lesser-known artists, including many women and minorities. Some of those paintings and sculptures were very attractive and thought-provoking. Others were far less meritorious. But of course, this kind of differentiation is the case with all works of art, and such judgments are invariably very much subject to the beholder’s perspective.

While the exhibition stimulated a good deal of thought and demonstrated the fascinating development of the major art movements in the United States in the last half century, the most surprising display was found at the very end of the exhibition.

As we exited the exhibition, our attention was drawn to a placard intended as a final summary. The words on this panel were startling.

The first part of the statement appropriately noted that Hirshhorn had generously given some 12,400 important works of art to the people of the United States, thereby permitting the Hirshhorn Museum to be established and to thrive. But the statement quickly veered in a different direction. It went on to say: “At the same time, Joseph Hirshhorn’s collecting habits reflected both his own biases as a Western white man and the prevalent collecting tendencies of his time; works by women and artists of color were substantially underrepresented.”

The generous Joseph Hirshhorn, whose amazing donations to our nation of important works of art worth probably more than $1 billion permitted the establishment of his eponymous museum as one of the premier venues for modern art in the United States, is now being demeaned as a biased Western White man. This is profoundly disappointing and, in some respects, ironic.

Hirshhorn was born in Latvia and immigrated to the United States at the age of 6. When he and his family came to the United States, it is highly likely that he was not even considered “White.” At Ellis Island, he likely would not have been allowed to be identified as “Caucasian,” the then-applicable term for White people. As a Jew, he would have had to have had to be identified as being of the “Hebrew” race. 

More importantly, Hirshhorn assuredly did not consider himself anything other than an American businessman who was Jewish. He was a practicing Jew who occasionally attended the Orthodox synagogue in Georgetown, but, as indicated by his remarkable gift to our nation, his primary identity was not religious or racial but national.

Joseph Hirshhorn was a proud American who wanted to give back to the nation that had provided him and his family with shelter and unlimited opportunities. It is a truly odd and profoundly regrettable development to have Hirshhorn identified as a biased Western White man on the walls of the museum he so generously helped to create as a gift to his fellow Americans of all races, ethnicities, religions and beliefs.

Sadly, the descriptive panel is not a unique manifestation of current racialist trends. It is rather yet one more example of progressives endeavoring to weaponize every aspect of our society to promote their racialist agenda. Characterizing individuals on the basis of their race is a reprehensible tactic. It is a demeaning tactic that reduces complex human beings into two-dimensional creatures. Perhaps we should simply be grateful that the curators of the Hirshhorn did not try to use Hirshhorn’s religion as an accusatory epithet.

The notion that the curators of the Hirshhorn Museum, who owe their very jobs to the generosity of Joseph Hirshhorn, would seek to diminish him by accusing him of being “biased” and reducing him to a racial category is inflammatory. Attacking the reputation of a deceased is especially reprehensible. Hirshhorn cannot defend himself. He cannot present his bona fides. This defamatory assault is simply inappropriate and unethical.

The officers, directors and curators of the Hirshhorn Museum should be ashamed of themselves. They should immediately remove the derogatory statement from the walls of the museum that Joseph Hirshhorn so generously endowed for the benefit of all Americans.

• Gerard Leval is a partner in the Washington office of a national law firm. He is the author of “Lobbying for Equality: Jacques Godard and the Struggle for Jewish Civil Rights During the French Revolution,” published by HUC Press.