Figge Art Museum Unveils Exhibition of the John Deere Art Collection

Written by Donald Findley Friday, 03 September 2010 21:52

DAVENPORT, IOWA.- The Figge Art Museum opened Global Currents: The John Deere Art Collection on Saturday April 24, 2010. The exhibition is the first opportunity for the general public to see works from Deere & Company’s corporate art collection. In 1965, William Hewitt, then chairman of Deere & Company, established an art collection to compliment the company’s new modernist world headquarters in Moline, Illinois, which was designed by Eero Saarinen. On view through 24 October.

With significant art originating from the United States, Latin America, and Asia, as well as Central and Eastern Europe, Deere has amassed an international collection that represents the diverse cultures in which the company conducts worldwide business. The exhibition includes works by such world famous artists as Grant Wood, Edward Curtis, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Rufino Tamayo, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Alejandro Obregón, Magdalena Abakanowicz, Sofu Teshigahara, and Matazo Kayama. The exhibition will include Grant Wood’s iconic Fall Plowing, as well as his Fruits of Iowa series.

“The Deere art collection is regionally well-known, but few people have been able to view the significant works all at once,” said Figge Art Museum Director Sean O’Harrow. “To be able to provide access to their art collection by letting the Figge curate a public exhibition and gallery is a great contribution to the cultural offering in the region.”

The Figge Art Museum is the premier art exhibition and education facility between Chicago and Des Moines. With soaring glass walls reflecting the constantly changing sky, the museum’s expansive galleries and intimate rooms are home to some of the Midwest’s finest art collections. Studio-style classrooms allow young and old to participate in the creative process.

The museum opened as the Davenport Municipal Art Gallery in 1925 with a gift of 350 European and Mexican Colonial paintings, creating the first municipal art gallery in the state of Iowa. Today, the collections include more than 3,500 paintings, sculptures and works on paper from the 16th century to the present.

Visit The Figge Art Museum at : www.art-dma.org/

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