This acquisition marked the beginning of a lifelong passion for collecting art, facilitated by an innate talent for making money. Hirshhorn eventually turned his attention to the art of contemporary masters, becoming an avid collector of works by living painters such as Milton Avery, Stuart Davis, Arshile Gorky, Edward Hopper, Larry Rivers, and Raphael Soyer. He socialized with many of these artists and assisted them when he could. For example, Hirshhorn helped Willem de Kooning, a good friend, finance the construction of a Long Island studio in exchange for works of art.
As a collector, Hirshhorn was also interested in works by American painters of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including Thomas Eakins, Louis Eilshemius, Ashcan School artists, and first-wave modernists in touch with European developments.
Hirshhorn was a frequent and welcome visitor in the studios of those whose works he collected, and many of these visits were commemorated with photographs. Hirshhorn may be most well-known as a collector of nineteenth and twentieth-century sculpture.
He acquired major works by pioneers such as Auguste Rodin and Constantin Brancusi, as well as innovative contemporaries, including Alexander Calder, Henry Moore, and Alberto Giacometti.
Several international museums and governments courted the intrepid collector, but he ultimately bequeathed his comprehensive modern art holdings to the Smithsonian Institution. Johnson, played a supporting role by paying personal visits to the Hirshhorns. Capitol and the Washington Monument. Shortly after the birth of his thirteenth child, Lazer Hirshhorn passed away, leaving his wife as the sole provider for the family.
At the age of six, Hirshhorn emigrated to the United States alongside his mother and siblings. The family settled in Brooklyn, taking up residence in a tenement. Very often, there was little—and, at times, nothing—to eat. Aline B. We used to get calendars. I used to cut up those pictures and put them on that green wall.
I kept dreaming about them, looking at them morning and night. It intrigued me. I think this is how my art world started. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. From these humble beginnings, Hirshhorn began his climb into the upper echelons of society. A man with a will of steel and ambition to match, Hirshhorn did exactly that. Three years later, in , Hirshhorn left his job at the firm and became a broker in his own right.
The Joseph J. Hirshhorn Bequest, Photograph by Lee Stalsworth. Photograph by Lee Stasworth. Hirshhorn, interview by Cummings. He subsequently moved into the mining business, and was among the first to mine the uranium reserves of Canada. He owed the bulk of his fortune to this business acumen. Abram Lerner and Joseph H. Hirshhorn in a Sculpture Exhibit, June Unlike other buyers, he acquired art at near-breakneck speed, purchasing quickly and in large quantities. In addition to his speed, Hirshhorn also bought art strictly according to his own aesthetic preferences, eschewing trends and the advice of others.
A bad encounter with a dealer early on turned Hirshhorn off dealers almost entirely, and even after he could afford to consult any number of dealers and advisers, Hirshhorn largely stuck to buying art based on his own tastes. And through this self-education, he formed his perspective on questions of beauty. As a result of his self-reliant approach to collecting, Hirshhorn amassed a collection with definitive peaks and valleys, rather than the smooth plane that would have resulted from a more even-handed approach to acquisitions.
Hirshhorn knew, and embraced, this aspect of his collection. Hirshhorn also bought a significant number of modern artworks, including paintings by Milton Avery and David Burliuk. Louis Eilshemius, Woodland Brook, unknown date. The Joseph H. David Burliuk, Milk Maid, by July Not content with paintings alone, Hirshhorn soon began collecting what he is best known for: sculpture.
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