Des Moines Art Center

The Des Moines Art Center is an art museum in Des Moines, Iowa, United States, established in 1948. It holds an extensive collection of paintings, sculpture, modern art, and mixed media, and has gained distinction for both its holdings and its architecture, with wings designed by three major architects of the twentieth century. The institution also operates the Pappajohn Sculpture Park in downtown Des Moines, which it assumed management of in 2009.

The institution's origins trace to 1916, when the Des Moines Association of Fine Arts established gallery space at the Public Library of Des Moines on the banks of the Des Moines River downtown. The association held several exhibitions annually and periodically purchased works for a permanent collection. In 1938, the association moved its collection to a building on Walnut Street. Planning for a permanent museum began in 1943 following a substantial donation from the trust of James D. Edmundson, who had died in 1933. The Des Moines Association of Fine Arts evolved into the Des Moines Art Center in 1945, and a site along Grand Avenue near Greenwood Park was selected. Construction began that same year, and the museum opened in 1948. Major expansions followed in 1968 and 1985. In 2009, the Art Center expanded its mission to operate the Pappajohn Sculpture Park in Western Gateway Park downtown.

The permanent collection spans paintings, sculpture, modern art, and mixed media, with particular strength in modern and contemporary work. It includes significant examples by major figures across multiple generations and movements, from nineteenth-century Impressionism through postwar abstraction and Pop Art to contemporary practice. The collection is presented through rotating exhibitions in the main gallery as well as long-term installations organized both chronologically and thematically, supplemented by short-term print and photography shows and a video gallery.

The collection includes works by Edward Hopper, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, Henri Matisse, Claude Monet, Francis Bacon, Georgia O'Keeffe, Gerhard Richter, Claes Oldenburg, Mary Cassatt, Auguste Rodin, Grant Wood, Deborah Butterfield, Paul Gauguin, Eva Hesse, Ronnie Landfield, Roy Lichtenstein, George Segal, Mark Rothko, John Singer Sargent, Joseph Cornell, and Takashi Murakami. Particular highlights include Edward Hopper's Automat from 1927, which was reproduced on a postage stamp and used for a Time magazine cover; Stanton MacDonald-Wright's Synchromy, widely reproduced in texts on the artist and Synchromism; and Francis Bacon's 1953 Portrait of Pope Innocent, considered a signature work that appeared in Robert Hughes' BBC series The Shock of the New in the early 1980s. The French Wikipedia source also notes Gustave Courbet's La Vallée de la Loue (1865), John Singer Sargent's Les Enfants Pailleron (1881), Henri Matisse's Dame à la robe blanche (1946), and Alberto Giacometti's L'Homme au doigt (1947).

The museum complex consists of three architecturally significant wings. The original wing was designed by Eliel Saarinen in 1945 in a combination of Art Nouveau and Art Deco styles and was completed in 1948. The second addition, originally intended for large-scale sculpture, was designed in a Modernist style by I. M. Pei in 1966 and completed in 1968; legend holds that Pei designed the south windows overlooking the rose garden to spell "PEI," though he denied this. The third wing was designed by Richard Meier and completed in 1985 with an emphasis on maximizing natural ambient light. The grounds include outdoor sculptures, a rose garden, and an external reflecting pool surrounded on all sides by the museum. The complex is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Des Moines Art Center is located on Grand Avenue in Des Moines, Iowa, adjacent to Greenwood Park. The museum includes a restaurant and gift shop, and offers workshops, film festivals, lectures, and classes for students of all ages through its large studio program. The institution also manages the Pappajohn Sculpture Park in Western Gateway Park downtown, which it began operating in 2009. The official website is http://www.desmoinesartcenter.org.