The Figge Art Museum Exhibits " Go West "

Sunday, 30 September 2007 00:12

Davenport, Iowa - Four new exhibitions – two of which focus on the West – are opening at the Figge Art Museum, 225 W. 2nd St., Davenport. Organized by the Figge Art Museum, “Go West!” is an exhibition of 30 artworks from the Figge’s great collection of Western art, which is not often on view. The exhibition includes paintings and sculpture by Frederic Remington, Charles Russell, Frank Tenney Johnson and William Robinson Leigh.

Some of the works have political implications, some are based on the beauty of the western landscape and others take an ironic look at traditional western themes.

“The Migration Series” is the seminal work of one of the most prominent and respected African-American artists of the 20th century. Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000) created these panels to describe the mass migration of African-Americans in the south to urban centers in the north from 1910 to 1930. The Great Migration was the largest movement of African-Americans since slavery removed Africans to the Americas.

The Lawrence exhibition was made possible through a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts as part of the American Masterpieces program, with additional support from MetLife Foundation and the Henry Luce Foundation. Local funding support was provided by Scott County Regional Authority and the Iowa Arts Council. The Moline Foundation supports family programming associated with both exhibitions.

 Lawrence’s panels portray the story of people seeking a better life and involve history, sociology and poetry in a visual narrative. The 60-panel series is owned jointly by the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC and Museum of Modern Art in New York – in the Figge exhibition, 17 of those panels will be displayed. A video about Lawrence will be shown on the third floor in conjunction with the exhibition.

“Go West!” will be on view through Jan. 13, 2008, and “Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series” will be on view through Oct. 28.

The Figge Art Museum opened in Davenport, Iowa on August 6, 2005 and replaces the Davenport Museum of Art, which was founded in 1925 as the first municipal art gallery in the state. The new building was designed by Modernist British architect David Chipperfield. Visit : www.figgeartmuseum.org/