Figge Art Museum
The Figge Art Museum is a museum of art in Davenport, Iowa, United States.
History
On 6 August 2005, the Figge Art Museum was opened. It replaced the Davenport Museum of Art, which was founded in 1925 as the first museum in Davenport. The new building of the Figge Art Museum was designed by the English architect David Chipperfield. The name was inspired by the Museum V.O. and Elizabeth Kahl Figge Foundation, which contributed with a donation of U.S. $ 13.25 million at the cost of 46.9 million U.S. $. The building was constructed above the 100 - year high water level to keep it at high water of the Mississippi River from damage and has an area of 10,683 sqm, of which a large part is used for training purposes. The Figge Art Museum is tied to the Smithsonian Institution.
On 17 September 2005, the first exhibition opened under the title: The Great American Thing: 1915-1935.
Collection
The first pieces of the collection came from a donation from the previous Davenporter banker and politician Charles Ficke (1850-1931), the art collected from all over the world. Robert E. Harsh, director of the Art Institute of Chicago certified, no public art gallery in America could go to his knowledge, show such a large number of important paintings collection as core to its opening. Today, the collection includes over 3,500 paintings, sculptures and works on paper.
It is known especially for the museum his collection of Haitian art and neuspanischer, as well as art from the mid west of the United States. Represented are also paintings of Thomas Benton and Grant Wood, including the only self-portrait Woods. Among other American artists such as Ansel Adams, Albert Bierstadt, William Merritt Chase, Winslow Homer, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, James McNeill Whistler and Andrew Wyeth are Figge Art Museum and European (including Albrecht Dürer, Francisco de Goya, Thomas Lawrence, Claude Lorrain, Rembrandt, Pierre- Auguste Renoir and Henri de Toulouse- Lautrec ) and East Asian (eg: Hiroshige, Hokusai and Kunisada ) artists represented. In addition, the Grant Wood Archive is in the Figge Art Museum.