Figge Art Museum

The Figge Art Museum is the principal art museum for eastern Iowa and western Illinois, located on the north bank of the Mississippi River in Davenport, Iowa. Opened to the public on August 6, 2005, the Figge succeeded the city-owned Davenport Museum of Art (1987-2005) and traces its origins to the Davenport Municipal Art Gallery of 1925. With an encyclopedic collection exceeding 4,000 works spanning the 16th century to the present, the museum serves as an art resource and collections hub for regional universities and colleges. Its building, designed by British architect David Chipperfield, was among his first commissions in the United States and helped establish his reputation, which culminated in the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2023.

The museum's institutional lineage begins in 1925 as the Davenport Municipal Art Gallery, making it the first museum in Davenport. Its original collection was donated by Charles Ficke (1850-1931), a successful lawyer, former mayor, and banker who collected art from around the world. Robert E. Harsche, then Director of the Art Institute of Chicago, remarked that no American public art gallery had started with so substantial a nucleus of important paintings. The institution became the Davenport Museum of Art in 1987 and operated under that name until 2005. The new Figge Art Museum was named for the V.O. and Elizabeth Kahl Figge Foundation, which contributed $13 million toward the $47 million construction cost. The building was constructed above the 100-year flood level to protect against Mississippi River flooding. The museum has held accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums since 1973. From 2008 until 2020, the Figge temporarily housed much of the University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art collection after flooding damaged the university's gallery in Iowa City; the collection returned upon completion of the Stanley's new building. The Figge also formerly hosted Western Illinois University's graduate program in Museum Studies, which offered a Master of Arts degree in museum management, curatorial design, and related fields.

The Figge's collection is encyclopedic in scope, encompassing over 4,000 works of art ranging from the 16th century to the present. The museum is particularly renowned for three areas: Haitian art, Colonial Mexican art, and Midwestern American art. Its holdings in Colonial Mexican art have been recognized since 1943, when the eminent Mexican art historian Manuel Toussaint traveled to Davenport to assess the collection and declared it one of the most important in an American institution at that time. The museum's American collection spans from 19th-century landscape painting to contemporary works, while its European holdings include Old Master prints, paintings, and drawings. East Asian works, particularly Japanese prints, form another significant component. As owner of Grant Wood's estate, the Figge maintains the Grant Wood Archives, which received substantial conservation support from The Henry Luce Foundation. The museum also holds an important collection of works by American architect and designer Frank Lloyd Wright, including drawings, furniture, fabrics, and decorative objects from across his career, with projects represented including the Arthur Heurtley House (1902), Avery Coonley House (1907), Edward P. Irving House (1909), Frederick C. Bogk House (1916), Johnson Wax Headquarters (1936), and the Price Tower (1952).

The Figge's signature works include the only self-portrait ever painted by Grant Wood, whose estate came to the museum in 1990 through his sister, Nan Wood Graham, the model for American Gothic. Midwestern art is further represented by Thomas Hart Benton and Marvin Cone. The American collection includes works by Albert Bierstadt, James McNeill Whistler, William Merritt Chase, Winslow Homer, Andrew Wyeth, Ansel Adams, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, and Jasper Johns. European holdings feature works by Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt, Claude Lorrain, Francisco Goya, Sir Thomas Lawrence, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Sir Henry Raeburn, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. The East Asian collection includes prints by Hokusai, Hiroshige, and Kunisada.

The Figge Art Museum building was designed by British architect David Chipperfield and opened on August 6, 2005. The structure covers 115,000 square feet (10,683 m²), with a significant portion devoted to educational purposes. Chipperfield later designed the Saint Louis Art Museum's east building, which opened in 2013. The Figge commission was among Chipperfield's earliest in the United States and preceded his Pritzker Architecture Prize by nearly two decades.

The Figge Art Museum is located in Davenport, Iowa, on the north bank of the Mississippi River. The museum maintains an affiliation with the Smithsonian Institution. Its website is www.figgeartmuseum.org. The museum's opening exhibition, held on September 17, 2005, was titled The Great American Thing: 1915-1935.