By Mary Abbe
Hirshhorn museum director Richard Koshalek spouts more fresh ideas at lunch than most museum directors cook up in a decade. His latest is a plan to fill the four-story courtyard of the donut-shaped Washington, D. C. institution with a baby-blue "balloon" that would rise above the museum and ooze out one size. In computer renderings, the contemporary museum seems to be blowing a gigantic bubble of chewing gum. It's no joke though.
The 145 ft. tall balloon is an inflatable meeting hall designed by the New York firm Diller Scofidio & Renfro. Made of translucent fabric, it would be installed twice a year — May and October — to house a temporary stage and seating for up to 1,000 for film screenings, concerts and other performances. It's projected to cost about $5 milllion and would inject a sassy Pop sensibility into a hermetic 1974 modernist icon.
"It could be the most uplifting work of civic architecture built in the capital since I. M. Pei completed his East Building of the National Gallery of Art more than 30 years ago," opined The New York Times.
Koshalek, a graduate of the University of Minnesota, launched his museum career as an intern at Walker Art Center in the early 1970s. Among other posts he was the founding director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and most recently the president of the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. He took the Hirshhorn post in April, following Olga Viso who now runs Walker Art Center.
The Hirshhorn and the Walker will be sharing a show in 2010. A retrospective by French conceptualist Yves Klein will run at the Hirshhorn from May 20 through Sept. 12 and then move to the Walker. It's being organized by former Walker curator Philippe Vergne who now heads the Dia Foundation in New York City. Small worlds.
