Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

The Hirshhorn Museum on the National Mall is the Smithsonian Institution's home for modern and contemporary art. Latvian-born uranium magnate Joseph Hirshhorn gave his 6,000-piece collection to the United States in 1966, and the building – Gordon Bunshaft's massive concrete drum raised on four piers around an open courtyard – opened in 1974. The Brutalist form drew critics ("a partially buried doughnut") but became iconic. Inside hang Rothkos, Bacons, Calders and Warhols, alongside rotating contemporary exhibitions. The sunken sculpture garden across the street sets Rodin bronzes beside Henry Moore and Yoko Ono's Wish Tree. Admission, as everywhere on the Mall, is free.