Figge Art Museum in Iowa, USA

Figge Art Museum is an art museum in downtown Davenport, Iowa, beside the Mississippi River. Its permanent holdings span American, Haitian, Mexican Colonial, Asian and European art, while the museum also maintains material connected with Iowa artist Grant Wood. The present museum building opened in 2005 and was designed by British architect David Chipperfield.

The Museum’s Origins in Davenport

The Figge developed from Davenport’s long-running municipal art museum. A donation of 334 works from Charles A. Ficke, a former mayor of Davenport, formed the foundation of the city’s permanent art collection. The institution later became known as the Davenport Museum of Art in 1987.

The city-run museum entered a new phase with the construction of a purpose-built facility on Davenport’s riverfront. The new museum opened on August 6, 2005 and was named Figge Art Museum in recognition of support associated with V.O. and Elizabeth Kahl Figge.

David Chipperfield’s Riverfront Building

The Figge building is notable for its restrained geometry and translucent green glass exterior. David Chipperfield was selected to design the museum in 1999, and the project became his first architectural commission in the United States.

Large interior spaces accommodate permanent displays, changing exhibitions, educational activities, lectures and public programs. Its position near the Mississippi River also places the museum within Davenport’s downtown cultural district rather than on a separate museum campus.

American and Midwest Regionalist Art

The American collection covers work from the Colonial period through 1945. Nineteenth-century American landscape painting is one of its stronger areas, including works associated with the Hudson River School and artists such as Asher B. Durand, John F. Kensett and Albert Bierstadt.

The museum also holds art linked closely to the Midwest Regionalist movement. Grant Wood is especially relevant to the collection because of his Iowa connections and his place in American Regionalism.

Grant Wood Collection and Archive

The Grant Wood Archive preserves source material related to the artist’s work and life. Much of the archive was assembled by his sister and occasional model, Nan Wood Graham. It has served researchers studying Wood, his artistic development and the wider Regionalist movement.

The archive makes the Figge more than a display site for Grant Wood material. It also functions as a research resource containing documentation and objects that can help place his finished works within their historical and personal context.

Haitian and Mexican Colonial Collections

The museum’s Haitian collection documents artistic production in Haiti beginning with the flowering of modern Haitian art in the 1940s. It gives this area of the permanent collection an identity separate from the museum’s American and European holdings.

The Mexican Colonial collection focuses on painting produced in New Spain during the 17th and 18th centuries. These works provide material for examining religious painting and artistic production during the colonial period in Mexico.

Asian and European Art

The Asian collection includes Japanese prints by artists such as Katsushika Hokusai, Utagawa Hiroshige and Utagawa Kunisada. Landscape scenes, actors, literary subjects and views of Japanese cities and travel routes appear among the museum’s works on paper.

European holdings extend the museum’s geographic range further. Works represented in the collection include prints and paintings connected with artists such as Rembrandt, Francisco de Goya, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Georges Braque. As with other areas of the collection, only a portion of these holdings may be displayed at any particular time.

Changing Exhibitions and Programs

The Figge combines permanent-collection displays with temporary exhibitions, so the galleries available during one visit may differ from those shown at another time. The museum also operates studios and educational spaces used for art classes, camps, lectures, tours and other scheduled programs.

Visitors interested in a particular artist or collection area should check the museum’s current exhibition listings before traveling, since ownership of a work does not mean that it is continuously on view.

Visiting the Figge Art Museum

The museum is closed on Mondays. It opens from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, stays open until 8 p.m. on Thursday, and operates from noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Closing procedures begin shortly before the stated closing time.

General admission is currently $14 for adults, $10 for visitors age 60 and older, $10 for high school and college students with identification, and $8 for children ages 4–12. Children under four enter free. The museum also provides free general admission to all visitors on Thursday evenings.

The Figge has wheelchair-accessible entrances as well as elevators and accessible restrooms. Because admission policies, holiday closures, exhibitions and program schedules can change, the museum’s official website should be checked for the current arrangements before a visit.