Figge Art Museum

The AIA award-winning Figge Art Museum opened in Davenport, Iowa on August 6, 2005, and is the re-named successor to the Davenport Museum of Art, which was opened on October 10, 1925, as the first municipal art gallery in the United States. The museum has its roots in the Davenport Art Association, which was founded before February 23, 1878, but was re-located on November 15, 1889, to the studio of Miss Bianca Wheeler.

The new building was designed by Stirling Prize winning Modernist British architect David Chipperfield. The Figge Art Museum gets its name from the V.O. and Elizabeth Kahl Figge Foundation, which donated $13.25 million towards its $48.5 million construction.http://www.figgeartmuseum.org/sitedefault.aspx?PageID=54 The Figge family, a local banking family of Swiss origin, has a long tradition of philanthropy and cultural enrichment.

The first pieces of its collections were donated by Davenport community leader Charles Ficke (1850-1931), a successful lawyer and former mayor, who collected art from around the world. Robert E. Harsche, then Director of the Art Institute of Chicago, reported that to his knowledge no American public art gallery had "started out with so large a number of important paintings as a nucleus."

Art Collection

The museum has over 4,000 works of art, ranging from the 16th century to the present, and is best known for its extensive collection of Haitian, Colonial Mexican and Midwestern art, particularly pieces by Thomas Hart Benton, Marvin Cone and Grant Wood, including the only self-portrait Wood ever painted. In 1990, Grant Wood's estate, which included his personal effects and various works of art, became the property of the Figge Art Museum through his sister Nan Wood Graham, the woman portrayed in American Gothic.

The institution also houses a substantial American collection (including works by Albert Bierstadt, James McNeill Whistler, William Merritt Chase, Winslow Homer, Andrew Wyeth, Ansel Adams, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns), European art (including work by artists such as Albrecht Durer, Rembrandt, Claude Lorrain, Francisco Goya, Sir Thomas Lawrence, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Toulouse-Lautrec and Pierre-Auguste Renoir), and works from East Asia (with pieces by Hokusai, Hiroshige and Kunisada). As owners of Grant Wood's estate, the museum is also home to the Grant Wood Archives, and received substantial support from the The Henry Luce Foundation for the conservation of these archives.

The museum has an important and growing collection of pieces by Frank Lloyd Wright, the American architect and designer from the Midwest.

Its inaugural exhibition, "The Great American Thing: 1915-1935" opened September 17, 2005, and featured major works from early American Modernists.

Other information

The National Center for Midwest Art and Design, otherwise known as NCMAD, is based at the Figge Art Museum. NCMAD's purpose is to promote the study of 19th and 20th century Midwest artists, designers and architects. NCMAD and its scholars have access to the Figge's extensive collection of works by Grant Wood (including the Grant Wood Archives based at the Figge), Thomas Hart Benton, John Steuart Curry, Marvin Cone, John Bloom, Frank Lloyd Wright, and many others.

The Figge is home to Western Illinois University's graduate program in Museum Studies, which offers a Master of Arts degree in that subject.

The museum is 115,000 square feet (10,683 m²) and has been accredited by the American Association of Museums since 1973.

Executive Directors

• Dr Sean O'Harrow (formerly of Cambridge University), 2007-Present
• Mr Thomas Gildehaus (interim director, chairman of the Board, formerly of Deere & Company), 2006-2007
• Ms Linda Banks Downs (formerly of the National Gallery of Art), 2003-2006. Downs is currently Executive Director of the College Art Association.

References

External links

• figgeartmuseum.org Official website
• Quad City Times articles about the Figge Art Museum

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