NEWS

Des Moines, Iowa  (February, 2009)

Des Moines Art Center to Open New Sculpture Park in Heart of Downtown Des Moines in September 2009

4.4 Acre Park to Feature 24 Contemporary Works Donated to Museum by John and Mary Pappajohn

Will Strengthen City’s Progressive Public Art Program and Contribute to Ongoing Revitalization of Downtown Des Moines

DES MOINES, February 20, 2009—In September 2009, the Des Moines Art Center will open a new 4.4 acre sculpture park in the heart of downtown Des Moines. The John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park will be built directly within a major crossroads of the urban grid, making it unlike any other sculpture garden in the United States, and will contribute to the ongoing revitalization of the surrounding neighborhood. It will feature 24 works donated to the museum by the Pappajohns, including eight new promised gifts from the couple’s renowned collection of contemporary sculpture and a new commission by artist Deborah Butterfield.

The Pappajohns’ initial contribution of 16 works for the park—the most significant donation of artwork ever made in a single gift to the museum—included sculpture by Louise Bourgeois, Richard Serra, Martin Puryear, Ellsworth Kelly, Willem de Kooning, and Anthony Caro, among others, and was valued at more than $25 million. This collection will be united with a second gift of eight works by Sol LeWitt, Tony Smith, Gary Hume, Ugo Rondinone, and Deborah Butterfield in a permanent installation in the city’s Western Gateway Park, which offers a pedestrian entranceway to downtown Des Moines.

“The John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park will change the cultural landscape of the city in a dramatic way unseen since the opening of the Des Moines Art Center in 1948,” said Des Moines Art Center director Jeff Fleming. “The impact of the Pappajohns’ gift on the museum and the city cannot be over emphasized. It will contribute to the dynamism of the city and add a new dimension to the museum experience.”

The sculpture park will strengthen Des Moines’ progressive public art program, which enhances the city’s physical environment by installing works of art by venerated artists at public buildings and lands. Works currently on display include pieces by Andrew Goldsworthy, Mary Miss, Bruce Nauman, Claes Oldenburg, and Richard Serra.

New York-based project architects Diana Agrest and Mario Gandelsonas, who developed a master plan for the city of Des Moines in the early 1990’s, have created a design for the new park featuring a rolling landscape and crescent-shaped open cutaways that will frame the sculptures. Backdrop walls eight feet high will be carved out of mounds running through the garden. The landscaping constructs a narrative of suspense, as all of the works will not be visible at the same time. Two large-scale works, Mark di Suvero’s untitled geometric piece and Jaume Plensa’s Nomade, will anchor the southern side of the park, where they will provide dramatic views for commuters driving east on Locust Street. Pedestrians moving more slowly through the park will see the rest of the works emerge by themselves or in small groups. A master plan for the installation of the sculpture is being developed by an advisory committee comprised of the Pappajohns and representatives from the museum and the city.

The park will be situated 32 blocks east of the Des Moines Art Center. Installation of the works is expected to begin in late spring 2009. The Art Center hopes to develop digital technology to help visitors to the park interpret the works and understand their relationship to the art on view at the museum.

The total value of the works that will be on view in the sculpture park is estimated at $40 million. The artists to be represented include:

• Louise Bourgeois
• Scott Burton
• Deborah Butterfield
• Anthony Caro
• Tony Cragg
• Willem de Kooning
• Mark di Suvero
• Barry Flanagan
• Gary Hume
• Ellsworth Kelly
• Sol Lewitt
• Jaume Plensa
• Martin Puryear
• Ugo Rondinone
• Richard Serra
• Joel Shapiro
• Judith Shea
• Tony Smith
• William Tucker

The park is a collaboration between the city of Des Moines and the Des Moines Art Center. The museum has successfully completed a $6.1 million campaign to fund the park with the support of individuals, corporations, and foundations. The city of Des Moines will oversee the park’s maintenance and operations, and the museum will maintain the artworks.

John and Mary Pappajohn
Mary and John Pappajohn of Des Moines embody the American dream. Emigrating from Greece as a child, John later worked his way through the University of Iowa. He has achieved extraordinary business successes—starting his own businesses and investing in others. Today, John is one of the state’s most successful entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. His wife Mary has been his partner in philanthropic endeavors that have provided nearly $50 million for scholarships, educational initiatives, and community development. John’s civic endeavors are broad, including serving as a trustee at the Des Moines Art Center, as a member of the National Committee of the Performing Arts and the Collectors Committee for the National Gallery of Art. From 1997–2006, he and his wife Mary were recognized as one of the top 200 art collectors in the world by ARTnews magazine.

The Des Moines Art Center
The Des Moines Art Center, located in the heart of the Midwest, is recognized nationally and internationally for its collection of modern and contemporary art. Since its founding in 1948, the art museum has built a collection which represents the major artists from the nineteenth century to the present, each with a seminal work. Holdings range from Edward Hopper’s Automat to Jasper Johns’ Tennyson, Henri Matisse’s Woman in White, Georgia O’Keeffe’s From the Lake No. 1, and Francis Bacon’s Study after Velásquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X.

The museum’s physical complex reflects the institution’s mission to celebrate and collect contemporary art, creating a fully integrated experience. The collection is housed in three buildings, each designed by a world–renowned architect—Eliel Saarinen, I. M. Pei, and Richard Meier. With the exception of special events, admission to the museum is free. Hours are Tuesday–Friday 11 am–4 pm; Saturday 10 am–4 pm; every Thursday 11 am–9 pm; Sunday Noon–4 pm; closed Monday.

Media contacts:
Des Moines Art Center
Christine Doolittle / Edwina Brandon
cdoolittle@desmoinesartcenter.org / ebrandon@desmoinesartcenter.org
515-271-0344 / 515-271-0318

Des Moines, Iowa  (January, 2008)

The Des Moines Art Center Presents
Pressing Issues

As the 2008 U.S. presidential nomination process moves into high gear, and as American politicians set out their plans for solving issues that trouble the nation and the world, the Des Moines Art Center presents an exhibition of prints by artists from the 17th to 21st centuries who confronted some of the burning political issues and social challenges of their times. Their attitudes ranged from disengaged reporting to impassioned advocacy. Artists, and the problems they explored, include William Hogarth on human cruelty, Winslow Homer on slavery and secession, George Grosz on war profiteering, Käthe Kollwitz on elderly suicide, Robert Indiana on segregation, Nancy Spero on abortion rights, and Luis Jiménez on U.S.–Mexican border controls and illegal immigration. Many of the problems these artists confront in their works are still strikingly relevant today. Drawn from the permanent collections, Pressing Issues is organized by Amy N. Worthen, curator of prints.

Related Program

Gallery Talk
Thursday, March 27, 6:30 pm
FREE admission

Join Amy Worthen as she discusses the artists and works in this exhibition.

Des Moines, Iowa  (December, 2007)

The Des Moines Art Center Presents
Matthew Buckingham: Play the Story

Native Iowan and internationally acclaimed film and video artist Matthew Buckingham returns to Iowa for his first major solo exhibition in the United States. Currently a professor of art at the Malmö Art Academy in Sweden, Buckingham will exhibit three new installations, along with a site–specific project, in the Des Moines Art Center’s upcoming exhibition, Matthew Buckingham: Play the Story, on view January 25 through April 20, 2008 (4700 Grand Avenue).

Through his use of space, settings, and narration Buckingham’s films typically focus on the connections among the past, present, and future by creating works that place the viewer, intellectually and physically, in all three time periods at once. His use of space plays a key role in the viewing experience. Working mainly with film, but also with photography, slide projection, text, and audio, Buckingham investigates history and representation, scrutinizing different forms of narrative.

This exhibition comprises three new projected image works illuminating moments in the lives of three little known historical figures: Charlotte Wolff, a German psychologist who wrote groundbreaking studies in homosexuality in the 1930s (Everything I Need, 2007); Louis Aime Augustin Le Prince, arguably the first inventor of cinema, who disappeared on a train between Dijon and Paris in 1890 before patenting his discovery (False Future, 2007); and Mary Wollstonecraft, known as a founding force of contemporary feminism in Britain in the late 18th century (The Spirit and the Letter, 2007). Through his films, Buckingham presents each of their stories while posing the question, “Can the past, present, and future exist independently of each other?”

Inspired by and engaged with the Des Moines Art Center since childhood, Matthew Buckingham selected the Art Center’s iconic sculpture Man and Pegasus (1949) by Swedish artist Carl Milles for a site–specific project. Over the years, Buckingham’s surprise encounters with this editioned bronze work in a variety of locations around the world have always recalled the Des Moines Art Center. Alluding to the uncanny meetings, the artist names this project Improbable Horse (2007), also a reference to the title of a 1949 Time magazine article that announced Des Moines’ bronze sculpture to the nation. For Improbable Horse, Buckingham has mined numerous sources— the museum’s history, collection, and archives, as well as the sculptor, the history of art, and popular culture—to create a publication and installation of visual imagery and archive material associated with the dynamic artwork.

Matthew Buckingham: Play the Story is curated by Mark Godfrey and organized by Camden Arts Centre in association with Dundee Contemporary Arts; FRAC Bourgogne, Dijon; Des Moines Art Center; and Henry Art Gallery, Seattle. Play the Story is accompanied by a bilingual—English and French—four–book boxed set. The Des Moines–specific project Improbable Horse includes a publication of approximately 120 pages.

About the artist:

Born in Nevada, Iowa in 1963, Buckingham received his BA in film production and film studies from the University of Iowa. He went on to receive his MFA from Bard College in Annadale–on– Hudson, New York. Recent accolades include Artist in Residence at The Arts Institute, University of Wisconsin–Madison (2006); Henry and Natalie E. Freund Teaching Fellowship, Washington University School of Art, St. Louis (2004); and DAAD Artists Program, Berlin, Germany (2003). He has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions since 1990, and has screened his work from New York to Amsterdam to China. Buckingham is increasingly recognized as one of the most significant, critical artists of recent years.

About the exhibition tour:

The European and U.S. tour of Matthew Buckingham: Play the Story is as follows: Camden Arts Centre, London (April 27–July 1, 2007); the Dundee Contemporary Arts (November 17, 2007– April 20, 2008); the Des Moines Art Center (January 25–April 20, 2008). After its presentation in Des Moines, the exhibition will travel to Fonds Régional d’Art Contemporain (FRAC) in Dijon (February 16–May 17, 2008), and the Henry Art Gallery in Seattle (July 12–September 24, 2008).

Matthew Buckingham: Play the Story Related Programs

Gallery Talk
Patricia Hickson, curator and downtown gallery manager
Thursday, February 7, 6:30 pm
FREE admission

Conversations on Art
Matthew Buckingham
Thursday, March 13, 6:30 pm
Levitt Auditorium
FREE admission; reservations required*

*Reservations are available exclusively through IowaTix beginning Monday, February 25. Orders are processed on a first–come, first–served basis. Order on–line at www.iowatix.com or by phone at 515.277.3727 (9 am–5 pm, Monday–Friday). Leaving a message will not guarantee a reservation.

Guided Tours

We are pleased to offer guided tours of Matthew Buckingham: Play the Story and the permanent collections. This is a perfect activity for a family, work group, or social group.

Des Moines, Iowa  (December, 2007)

The Des Moines Art Center Presents
Conrad Bakker Objects & Economies [Untitled Projects 1997–2007]

The Des Moines Art Center is proud to present the work of artist Conrad Bakker, on view from December 14, 2007–March 28, 2008 at the Art Center Downtown (800 Walnut). This 10–year survey exhibition features Bakker’s ongoing series of Untitled Projects—thematically organized bodies of work that explore objects and their economies through a variety of social, institutional, and consumer contexts utilizing humor, situational awareness, formal play, and interventionist strategies.

Interested in operating outside of traditional art–world spaces, Bakker often distributes his roughly–carved and imperfectly–painted facsimiles of everyday objects and known consumer products through alternative markets—in auctions on eBay, for barter on craigslist, dropped onto store shelves, or grouped into his own functional mail–order catalog. Whether snatched, exchanged, or purchased (often times at the real object’s going rate), the unwieldy trafficking of these faux objects through a real economy is a key component of these projects. Bakker states, “I view my art and practice as an active agent of the everyday, marking the social, political, and economic trajectories of contemporary spaces. I am interested in allowing these (art) objects to drift into and out of social and commercial contexts. This is not a strategy to draw attention to these artworks as ‘specific objects’ as much as it is a way to create a conceptual kind of drag that leaves an odd and awkward trail when they are inserted into social and commercial trajectories.”

Divided into three distinct areas, the exhibition’s front section presents new, site–specific Untitled Projects that explore Des Moines’ local craigslist advertisements and Des Moines Art Center Museum Shop merchandise – blurring the line between these objects and spaces of consumption and contemplation. The central gallery contains an abridged archive featuring 10 years of Untitled Projects via photographic documentation and selected artifacts. Finally, addressing the cultural phenomenon of designer furniture and modern lifestyle, Bakker converts the back gallery into a sculptural variation of a designer showroom, highlighted by accessorized vignettes based on the pages of popular designer furniture catalogues. Throughout Conrad Bakker: Objects & Economies [Untitled Projects 1997–2007], visitors should look high and low, around corners, and in the shop, for objects and situations that critically engage and visually delight.

Organized by Patricia Hickson, Art Center curator and downtown gallery manager, Conrad Bakker: Objects & Economies [Untitled Projects 1997–2007] is accompanied by an exhibition catalogue with an introduction by Patricia Hickson; an essay by Kelly Baum, Locks Curatorial Fellow for Contemporary Art at the Princeton University Art Museum; and texts by artist Conrad Bakker.

About the artist:

Conrad Bakker was born in Ontario, Canada, in 1970. He received his BFA from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1992, and his MFA from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1996. In 2000, Bakker received a Creative Capital Foundation project grant and in 2005 he received a Visual Arts Fellowship Grant from the Illinois Arts Council. Bakker’s work has been exhibited throughout the country and in Europe, including the New Museum of Contemporary Art (New York), The Renaissance Society (Chicago), Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (North Adams), Färgfabriken Center for Contemporary Art and Architecture (Stockholm), and Tate Modern (London). He is currently an associate professor in the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.

Conrad Bakker: Objects & Economies [Untitled Projects 1997 – 2007] Related Programs

New merchandise in the Museum Shop
Exclusive to members and employees of corporate supporters: during the preview party or anytime between 11 am – 6 pm on Friday, December 14, members will receive double discounts (20%) and corporate donor employees will receive 10% off purchases in the Downtown Museum Shop (excluding consignment items). Employees of corporate donors should be prepared to show proof of employment. (A complete list of corporate supporters can be found on the Art Center website www.desmoinesartcenter.org).

Gallery Talk
Patricia Hickson, curator and downtown gallery manager
Thursday, January 17, 6:30 pm
Art Center Downtown
FREE admission

Conversations on Art:
Conrad Bakker
Thursday, February 28, 6:30 pm
Levitt Auditorium, Art Center on Grand Avenue
FREE admission

Guided Tours
We are pleased to offer guided tours of Conrad Bakker: Objects & Economies [Untitled Projects 1997–2007] and the permanent collections. This is a perfect activity for a family, work group, or social group. Please schedule at least three weeks in advance. Contact Jennifer Cooley at 515.271.0328 or jcooley@desmoinesartcenter.org. All tours Downtown are FREE.

Des Moines, Iowa  (August, 2007)

The Des Moines Art Center Presents
Enrique Chagoya: Borderlandia

Contemporary icons such as Mickey Mouse and Wonder Woman intermingle with historical figures and ancient Aztec gods in fantastic compositions in the Des Moines Art Center’s newest exhibition, Enrique Chagoya: Borderlandia, a 25–year survey of the Mexican–born, American artist, on view September 21, 2007 through January 6, 2008 (4700 Grand Avenue).

A borderless world of cultural hybrids and collisions inhabits Enrique Chagoya’s work, in which he combines a diverse selection of visual material spanning hundreds of years and separated by thousands of miles. Chagoya taps his personal history and interests—Mexico’s complex past, international politics, various religions, art history, and popular culture. According to the artist, “Humankind is in constant war with itself, perfectly capable of total destruction. This is the raw material for my art.” More than 70 lively paintings, mixedmedia codices (accordion–folded books), large–scale charcoal and pastel drawings, and numerous prints will be included in this expansive survey exhibition.

About the artist:

Born in Mexico City in 1953, Chagoya regularly visited the museums of the capital city and Teotihuacán as a child. These cultural institutions provided him with his first exposure to pre–Columbian culture. Chagoya was influenced by his Catholic upbringing and the socio–political environment in Mexico, which also inform his art. Chagoya moved to the United States in 1979 and in 1984 he enrolled at the San Francisco Art Institute where he created the powerful work that begins this mid–career survey exhibition. Chagoya utilizes traditional Mexican approaches to art making: painting on aluminum directly refers to the folk art tradition of the ex–voto or retablo and his paintings on amate—fig bark—allude to the ancient Aztec and Mayan codex books. Drawing on the rich tradition of Mexican political prints—particularly José Guadalupe Posada—Chagoya’s intelligent and witty narratives satirize and, at times, celebrate the complicated cultural and psychological consequences of more than 500 years of contact and influence between worlds (see enclosed images).

About the exhibition catalogue:

A 100–page, full–color, bilingual—English and Spanish—catalogue spanning Chagoya’s career will accompany the exhibition and will include a foreword by Art Center Director Jeff Fleming; essays by Patricia Hickson, Art Center curator; Daniela Pérez, associate curator of contemporary art at Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo in Mexico City; and Robert Storr, Dean of the Yale School of Art and Commissioner of the 2007 Venice Biennale; a catalogue of works in the exhibition; an artist’s chronology; and selected exhibition history. The catalogue will be available for purchase in the Art Center’s Museum Shop.

About the exhibition tour:

After its presentation in Des Moines, Enrique Chagoya: Borderlandia will be presented at the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum from February 13 to May 18, 2008, and the Palm Springs Art Museum from September 12 to December 7, 2008. Enrique Chagoya: Borderlandia is organized by Patricia Hickson, curator and downtown gallery manager.

Enrique Chagoya: Borderlandia is sponsored by the Lannan Foundation and Principal Financial Group Foundation, Inc.; additional support is provided by The Jacqueline & Myron Blank Exhibition Fund. Support for the catalogue has been provided by George Adams Gallery, Gallery Paule Anglim, and Stanford University.

Enrique Chagoya: Borderlandia Related Programs

Lecture
Bud Shark, Master Printer / Director, Shark’s Ink.
Sunday, September 16, 2 pm
Levitt Auditorium
FREE Admission

Since 1976, Shark’s Ink., based in Colorado, has printed and published an extensive and eclectic body of prints. This presentation will explore the studio’s various artistic partnerships, highlighting Shark’s collaboration with Enrique Chagoya. This talk is sponsored by the Des Moines Art Center Print Club.

Conversations on Art
Enrique Chagoya
Tuesday, September 18, 6:30 pm
Levitt Auditorium
FREE admission; reservations required*

Producing work in many different media, Chagoya has consistently looked to history—both ancient and modern—for inspiration. He is best known for his images that combine elements from pre–Columbian civilization, Christian iconography, art history, American pop culture, and world politics. Join us as Chagoya offers insight into the creativity and activism of his 25–year career.

*Reservations are available exclusively through IowaTix beginning Tuesday, September 4, 2007. Orders are processed on a first–come, first–served basis. Order on–line at www.iowatix.com or by phone at 515.277.3727 (9 am – 5 pm, Monday – Friday). Leaving a message will not guarantee a reservation.

Gallery Talk
Patricia Hickson, curator and downtown gallery manager
Thursday, November 15, 6:30 pm
FREE admission

Join exhibition curator, Patricia Hickson, as she discusses the complex imagery of Chagoya’s work and welcomes questions from the audience.

Guided Tours

We are pleased to offer guided tours of Enrique Chagoya: Borderlandia and the permanent collections. We can accommodate groups from two to 100 people. It’s a perfect activity for a family, work team, or social group.

Please schedule at least three weeks in advance. Contact Jennifer Cooley at 515.271.0328 or jcooley@desmoinesartcenter.org.
Adult Group Tours; $2 per person / $20 minimum fee
Student Tours: FREE

Des Moines, Iowa  (August, 2007)

The Des Moines Art Center Downtown Presents
Sign Language

The Des Moines Art Center’s newest exhibition, Sign Language, explores contemporary art inspired by the vernacular of signs in the urban landscape—billboards, neon signs, LED panels, and more will be on view August 24 through November 23, 2007 (9th and Walnut Streets, Downtown Des Moines).

Spanning from Pop art to the present, Sign Language examines how artists personalize, subvert, and playfully modify the sign genre. Featured artists include Jean–Michel Basquiat, Ashley Bickerton, Robert Cottingham, Keith Haring, Jenny Holzer, Robert Indiana, Margaret Kilgallen, Barry McGee / Josh Lazcano, Michael C. McMillen, Bruce Nauman, Tim Noble & Sue Webster, Claes Oldenburg, Julian Opie, Rigo 23, Kay Rosen, and James Rosenquist.

A combination of treasures from the Art Center’s permanent collections and loaned works of art from around the country, Sign Language illustrates how advertising and signage has influenced and taken form in art. According to Patricia Hickson, exhibition curator, “Since the advent of Pop art in the 1960s, artists have engaged significantly with popular culture, especially advertising…the barrage of graphic design, billboards, and general signage in the urban landscape has consistently informed the work of many notable contemporary artists over the past 50 years.”

Sign Language is accompanied by an exhibition brochure with an essay by Patricia Hickson, curator and downtown gallery manager.

Sign Language Related Programming

Exhibition Preview Party
Thursday, August 23, 6 – 8 pm
Admission $5; Members FREE
Music by Hot Club of Des Moines

Gallery Talk
Thursday, September 27, 6:30 pm
Des Moines Art Center Downtown
The gallery will open at 6 pm to preview the exhibition.
FREE Admission

Join curator Patricia Hickson as she discusses the work and themes present in this exhibition.

Guided Tours

We are pleased to offer free guided tours of Sign Language. Please schedule at least three weeks in advance. Contact Jennifer Cooley, museum educator, at 515–271–0328 or jcooley@desmoinesartcenter.org.

Des Moines, Iowa  (May, 2007)

The Des Moines Art Center Presents
Tom Sachs: Logjam

One may not often consider a drill press or an office desk a work of art, but in the Des Moines Art Center’s newest exhibition, Tom Sachs: Logjam, on view May 25 – August 26, 2007, artist Tom Sachs’ work stations not only enable him to create art, but are works of art in their own right. In the truest sense of form following function, Sachs’ fascinating and often obsessive work stations allow the viewer to peer into the rarely seen spaces in which this artist works. Tom Sachs: Logjam, the artist’s first one–person museum exhibition in the United States, is organized by Jeff Fleming, director of the Des Moines Art Center (4700 Grand Avenue, Des Moines, IA). The exhibition will travel to the Rose Art Museum of Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, in the fall of 2007. “Each piece speaks to Sachs’ creative process and to the act of art making,” explains Fleming. “These private works tell of obsession and labor, but add to these attributes a sense of playfulness and exuberance that infuse each of his objects.”

Tom Sachs will discuss his work during “Conversations on Art” in the Art Center’s Levitt Auditorium on Tuesday, May 22 at 6:30 pm. (Admission is free but tickets are required and will be available beginning Monday, May 7 at www.iowatix.com.)

About Tom Sachs

Tom Sachs is known for his effusive installations and constructions of a variety of objects more commonly found within the public or commercial domain. These works include a McDonald’s fast–food stand, a made–from–scratch refrigerator, and an aircraft carrier tower. He constructs these objects from a variety of purchased and found materials, including stolen wooden New York City police barricades. Throughout Sachs’ career, he has created works of art based on both high–end consumer products, such as Prada, Chanel, and Hermes, and on more popularly based products, such as the Hello Kitty dolls and McDonald’s, either by appropriating their logos and products or by manipulating their existing packaging materials into new forms. He has used these works to respond to, and often critique, our overpowering consumer culture and its desire for more and more status–giving products. This exhibition, arguably Sachs’ most personal to date, explores why he is driven to fabricate objects and how he chooses to make what he does. Included here are his toolboxes, workstations, and “living” sites (including a functioning Mini–Z race track and flaming ring of fire!). These provide evidence of his working – and playing – processes. With boyish enthusiasm, Sachs displays his collection of tools, just as he eagerly offers up his technical competence and craftsmanship for all to see. In his sculptures, Sachs blurs the boundaries between the mass produced and the handmade, the public and the private realms, while mining the embedded history of the object and his materials.

Tom Sachs: Logjam Related Programs

Conversations on Art: Tom Sachs
Tuesday, May 22, 6:30 pm
Levitt Auditorium
FREE admission; reservations required*

The critic Adrian Dannatt described Tom Sachs’ work in a 2004 article in The Art Newspaper as “serious sculpture, luxury commodity, consumer critique, and ultimate fetish purchase all at once.” Join us as the artist talks about his work and learn about the many issues he addresses in his meticulously hand–fabricated objects.

*Reservations for this FREE lecture are required and limited.
Reservations are available exclusively through IowaTIX beginning Monday, May 7, 2007. Orders are processed on a first–come, first–served basis. Order online at www.iowatix.com or by phone at 515.277.3727 (9 am – 5 pm, Monday – Friday). Leaving a message will not guarantee a reservation.

Reservations placed with IowaTIX will be checked at the Art Center (with photo ID) the evening of the event beginning at 5:30 pm. The Art Center reserves the right to release seats for any unclaimed reservations at the start of the lecture.

Gallery Talk
Jeff Fleming, Director
Thursday, July 19, 7 pm
FREE admission

Join exhibition curator and Art Center Director Jeff Fleming for an illuminating discussion of the work in the show.

Guided Tours

We are pleased to offer guided tours of Tom Sachs: Logjam and the permanent collection. We can accommodate groups from two to 100 people. It’s a perfect activity for a family, work team, or social group.

Please schedule at least three weeks in advance. Contact Jennifer Cooley at 515.271.0328 or jcooley@desmoinesartcenter.org.
Adult Group Tours; $2 per person / $20 minimum fee
Student Tours: Free

Des Moines, Iowa  (April, 2007)

The Des Moines Art Center Downtown Presents
Iowa Artists 2007
On view April 27 – August 3, 2007

Note: An exhibition preview party will be held at the Des Moines Art Center Downtown on Thursday, April 26 from 6:00 – 8:00 pm. Cost is $5 (free for Art Center members).

The Des Moines Art Center Downtown will feature the work of three Iowa artists–Charlotte Cain of Fairfield, George Lowe of Decorah, and Susan Chrysler White of Iowa City from April 27 through August 3, 2007 as the Art Center presents Iowa Artists 2007. The 57th installment in the museum’s annual Iowa Artists series, this year’s presentation takes the form of an invitational exhibition with three concurrent one–person shows. The three mid–career artists from Iowa work in different forms of media—from earthy ceramics, to finely detailed drawing, to large–scale abstract painting—resulting in a rich and diverse gallery experience.

About the Artists

Charlotte Cain of Fairfield, Iowa, creates small and intimate works on paper that reference Hindu ritual iconography as well as the fabric design, architectural ornamentation, and painted miniatures of India. Her delicate paintings and drawings transcend their materials and allude to imaginary worlds. Cain received her education from the Rhode Island School of Design and has presented her work in numerous solo shows across the country.

Decorah–based ceramic artist George Lowe produces straightforward, utilitarian clay forms, such as pitchers, vessels, and jars. Basic and simple, yet beautiful, Lowe’s work follows in the traditions of potters who steadfastly adhere to a belief that form follows function. Lowe often fires his ceramic pieces many times in order to achieve the desired surface. Like North Carolina’s Jugtown and Seagrove pottery, Lowe’s jars and vessels may also feature blue/green or cerulean glazes, but their shapes remain simple and practical. Lowe’s work can also be found at the 2007 Des Moines Arts Festival (June 29–July 1, 2007).

Susan Chrysler White’s vibrantly colored, large–scale enamel and acrylic paintings seduce the eye. Symmetrical Rorschach inkblot–like imagery dominates compositions that alternately read as dynamic abstract patterns and then glorious collages of various organic forms and figures–Buddhas, insects, and flowers. A professor of painting and drawing at the University of Iowa’s School of Art and Art History, White draws from numerous art historical precedents–Op art, Pop art, and the Pattern and Decoration movement–while injecting the work with a unique combination of spirituality and contemporary abstraction.

Iowa Artists 2007 is organized by Jeff Fleming, director, and Patricia Hickson, curator and downtown gallery manager. Iowa Artists 2007 is supported by John Deere Des Moines Works.

Iowa Artists 2007 Related Programming

Exhibition Preview Party
Thursday, April 26, 6 – 8 pm
Admission $5; Members Free

Music provided by Gateway Dance Theatre
Musicians: Ambika Athreya, Sree Nilakanta, Mike Pfaff, Ajmal Rahi, and Mikiel Williams

Artists Talk
Thursday, May 17, 6:30 pm
Art Center Downtown (the gallery will be open at 6 pm to preview the exhibition)
FREE Admission

Jeff Fleming, director, and Patricia Hickson, curator and downtown gallery manager, with the 2007 Iowa Artists: Charlotte Cain, George Lowe, and Susan Chrysler White.

This program offers an insightful look at the exhibition through the voices of the artists included in the show.

Des Moines Art Center Iowa Film Showcase

The Art Center presents its fourth Iowa film event in conjunction with the Iowa Artists 2007 exhibition. Anyone currently living in Iowa may submit work. Up to $2,500 in cash prizes will be awarded. See here for a printable entry form or contact Jill Featherstone at 515.271.0317 or jfeatherstone@desmoinesartcenter.org for more information.

Iowa Film Showcase Public Screening
Sunday, June 24, 1 pm
Des Moines Art Center’s Levitt Auditorium
4700 Grand Avenue
FREE Admission

View award winning showcase highlights.

Guided Tours
We are pleased to offer free guided tours of Iowa Artists 2007. Please schedule at least three weeks in advance. Contact Jennifer Cooley, museum educator, at 515.271.0328 or jcooley@desmoinesartcenter.org.

Des Moines, Iowa  (February 5, 2007)

Contacts:
Des Moines Art Center, Jeff Fleming, Director, 515.271.0322
City of Des Moines, Mayor Frank Cownie, 515.283.4507
City of Des Moines, Christine Hensley, City Council Ward III, 515.237.1625

John and Mary Pappajohn Pledge Gift of Major Sculptures
to the Des Moines Art Center

Works will be permanently installed in Des Moines’ Western Gateway Park

Des Moines Art Center Director Jeff Fleming has announced that Des Moines philanthropists John and Mary Pappajohn plan to give the Art Center a minimum of 16 major sculptures by internationally acclaimed contemporary artists. The collection of sculptures by artists Louise Bourgeois, Scott Burton, Deborah Butterfield, Anthony Caro, Tony Cragg, Willem de Kooning, Mark di Suvero, Barry Flanagan, Ellsworth Kelly, Martin Puryear, Richard Serra, Joel Shapiro, Judith Shea, Tony Smith, and William Tucker will be the most significant donation of artwork to the Art Center in a single gift in the museum’s history. In a new partnership formed with the city of Des Moines, the sculptures will be installed in the city’s Western Gateway Park in a permanent feature to be named The John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park.

“The magnitude of this gift to the Art Center and the impact it will have on the city of Des Moines cannot be over emphasized,” says Fleming. “The John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park will elevate the cultural landscape of this community to a whole new level. This is just a remarkable gift to the Art Center, and to the city.”

Des Moines’ Western Gateway Park is located on 13 acres of land on the western end of downtown Des Moines between 10th and 15th Streets, and Grand and Locust. A mix of green space and buildings, the park provides a memorable entry to downtown Des Moines and is currently home to the John and Mary Pappajohn Higher Education Center, the Des Moines Library, and the Temple for Performing Arts. Current special features of the park include a 500 foot water runnel, a large meadow area, and a central promenade. A master plan for the placement of the new sculptures will be determined by a selection committee comprised of the Pappajohns along with representatives from the Art Center and the city of Des Moines, with assistance from Substance Architecture of Des Moines. Installation of the work is expected to occur in phases over the course of several years, beginning in the spring of 2007.

According to Des Moines city council member Christine Hensley, “The Pappajohn Sculpture Park will have a huge impact on the city of Des Moines. It will place us in the top tier of cities not only within in the country but internationally within the art world. We are so grateful to the Pappajohns for their generous gift to the Art Center and the city. This has to be one of the largest gifts in the history of Des Moines.”

John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park of the Des Moines Art Center
Complete list of works (digital images available on request; all photos courtesy of Substance Architecture):

1.
Louise Bourgeois
American, born France, 1911
Spider, 1997
Bronze
94 x 94 x 84 inches

2.      
Scott Burton
American, 1939–1989
Untitled (Eight–Part Seating/Café Table I)
Table: designed 1984/fabricated 1992
Polished Absolute black granite
28 x 22 x 22 inches
Chairs: designed 1985/fabricated 1989–90
Polished Deer Island granite
32 x 34 x 18 inches eac

3.      
Deborah Butterfield
American, born 1949
Juno, 1989
Cast bronze
81 x 95 x 75 inches

4.      
Sir Anthony Caro
British, born 1924
In the Morning, ca. 1950s
Bronze
42 ∏ x 33 x 24 inches

5.      
Tony Cragg
British, born 1949
Order, 1989
Cast bronze, 2 elements
64 x 120 x 78 inches

6.      
Willem de Kooning
American, born Holland, 1904–1997
Reclining Figure, 1969–82
Bronze
67 x 130 x 96 inches

7.      
Mark di Suvero
American, born China, 1933
T8, 1985
Painted steel
28’ 7” x 24’ x 37’

8.      
Barry Flanagan
British, born 1941
Thinker on a Rock, 1997
Bronze
131 ∏ x 71 ∏ x 101 ∏ inches

9.      
Ellsworth Kelly
American, born 1923
Untitled, 1986
Stainless steel
96 x 96 x 84 inches

10.    
Martin Puryear
American, born 1941
Decoy, 1990
Cast iron
40 ∏ x 110 ∏ x 109 ∏ inches

11.    
Richard Serra
American, born 1939
Five Plate Pentagon, 1986
Steel
60 x 112 x 112 inches

12.    
Joel Shapiro
American, born 1941
Untitled, 1985
Bronze
90 π x 89 ≤ x 52 inches

13.    
Judith Shea
American, born 1948
Post Balzac, 1990
Cast bronze and stone
101 x 18 π x 19 inches

14.    
Tony Smith
American, 1912–1980
Marriage, 1961
Welded steel with black paint
120 x 144 x 120 inches

15.    
Tony Smith
American, 1912–1980
We Lost, 1962
Steel painted black
128 x 128 x 128 inches

16.    
William Tucker
British, born Egypt, 1935
Gymnast III, 1985
Bronze
90 x 60 x 35 inches

About John and Mary Pappajohn

John Pappajohn immigrated from Greece at the age of 9 months. He grew up in Mason City, Iowa. His father died when he was 16 years old...and it changed his world. He worked his way through college and alternated working and attending school with his brothers. It took him six years to get his degree. He graduated with a BSC degree in business from the University of Iowa in 1952. He did not interview for a job. He wanted to own his own business. He established an insurance agency after graduation from college and subsequently organized and became Chairman of the Board of Guardsman Insurance Investors, a public insurance holding company.

In 1969, Mr. Pappajohn organized equity Dynamics, Inc., a financial consulting entity and Pappajohn Capital Resources, a venture capital firm in Des Moines, Iowa. He was one of the early venture capitalists. Since this time, Mr. Pappajohn has been involved in over 100 start ups and has served as a Director in over 40 public companies.

Mr. Pappajohn and his wife, Mary, have gifted more than $25 million to various philanthropic causes including the John Pappajohn Business Building at University of Iowa Business School, the Pappajohn Pavilion at the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics and the John and Mary Pappajohn Clinical Cancer Center. Mr. Pappajohn also organized and financed the John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Centers at five universities and colleges in the state of Iowa for more than $15 million. These centers have helped create and launch over 1000 new companies. Funded the NIACC Pappajohn Business Building in Mason City, IA 2001. In 1997, he and his wife, Mary, funded a $5 million John and Mary Pappajohn Scholarship Fund for ethnic, disadvantaged and minority students. $237,150 in scholarships were granted in 2006. He and his wife recently committed $2 million to help finance the new John and Mary Pappajohn Higher Education Center, a collaborative of seven universities and colleges in the state of Iowa.

He has been the recipient of many awards including: Horatio Alger recipient in 1995, Board of Directors Horatio Alger Association; past Trustee Pine Manor College, Boston, MA; since 1988, a member of the Anatolia College Board of Trustees, Thessaloniki, Greece; University of Iowa Foundation Board of Trustees, Iowa City; University of Iowa Board of Visitors; University of Iowa Business School Finkbine Award 2004; University of Iowa Homecoming Honored Guest 2002; University of Iowa 1996 Recipient Distinguished Alumni Award for Service; 1993 Oscar D. Schmidt Iowa Business Leadership Award from the University of Iowa College of Business; Iowa Business Leader of the Year 1992; Brotherhood Award from the Iowa Region National Conference of Christians and Jews 1997; inducted into the Iowa Hall of Fame 1996; Beta Gamma Sigma Medallion for Entrepreneur of the Year 1997; over 20 year association with the JF Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, D.C. former member of the Advisory Board, appointed by President Ronald Reagan; reappointed by President George Bush; presently active member of the National Committee of the Performing Arts; Member Trustees Council and Collectors Committee for the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Director of the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, D. C.; Member of the National Committee for the Whitney Museum, New York; Honorary Trustee Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA; named by Art News Magazine as one of the top 200 art collectors in the world from 1997–2006; awarded the Meredith Willson Heritage Award, 1998; Central Iowa Business Hall of Achievement, 1999 and Ellis Island Medal of Honor recipient in 2000; 33rd Degree Mason Shriner 2003; Hellenic Heritage Achievement Award 1997; Leadership 100 Board of Directors; Greek Orthodox Archon Award 2000; Iowa Philanthropists of the Year 2004; Honorary Alumni Iowa State University 2005 and Outstanding Alumni American Association of Community Colleges 2006.

Mr. Pappajohn lives in Des Moines, Iowa with his wife, Mary. They have one daughter, Ann Vassiliou.

About the Artists 


Louise Bourgeois
American, born France, 1911

Although associated with a generation of Abstract Expressionists and Surrealists, Louise Bourgeois has always been at the forefront of new developments in contemporary art. After studying with surrealist Fernand Léger in Paris, she moved to New York in 1938 and studied at the Art Students League. Initially a painter and printmaker, she began creating wood sculpture in abstract, organic forms in the 1940s. By the 1960s she was working in rubber, bronze, and stone in more representational imagery. Her autobiographical work has always mined her personal family history and dysfunctional childhood focusing on themes of identity, love, sex, alienation, and death. In particular, Bourgeois has used the spider for decades to explore memories of her mother, who died when the artist was 20 years old. She stated, “My mother was deliberate, clever, patient, soothing, reasonable, dainty, subtle, indispensable, neat, and useful as a spider.”


Scott Burton
American, 1939–1989

Credited for transforming the idea of public art, Scott Burton made functional sculpture that requires the visitors’ interaction to complete the work. He began as a performance artist in the streets of NY in the 1960s. This work evolved into “furniture tableaux” using chairs as stand–ins for the human figure. In the late 1970s, Burton’s work moved in the direction of the dual sculpture–and–furniture pieces he is best known for. His various minimalist sculptural configurations assume the functional role of tables and chairs, while creating poetic places to rest and contemplate in public areas.


Deborah Butterfield
American, born 1949

The horse has been the singular sustained focus of the popular work of Bozeman, Montana–based sculptor Deborah Butterfield for more than thirty years. The native Californian earned her BFA and MFA at the University of California at Davis. Her early horse sculptures—made of natural materials like mud and sticks—proved problematic in the long term. Wood shrinkage and dirt disintegration resulted in the works requiring constant attention. In response, the artist now simulates sticks by molding them individually in bronze and then adding natural–looking patinas. The loose and open construction of the “stick” horses lends a false vulnerability to the life–size forms. Butterfield masters the horse’s natural “gesture” in the works—they lie or stand untethered and embody a quiet strength and spirit.


Anthony Caro
British, born 1924

Sir Anthony Caro, who was knighted in 1987, played a critical role in the development of 20th–century sculpture. The previously figurative and now abstract sculptor studied art at the Royal Academy School in London before becoming Henry Moore’s assistant. Caro gained prominence after his 1963 solo exhibition at Whitechapel Art Gallery in London. His large, brightly painted, abstract floor sculptures were groundbreaking in their one–to–one engagement with viewers—a new direction for sculpture at the time. Caro was a renowned professor of art at London’s St. Martin’s School of Art (1953 – 1981) where he taught a new generation of contemporary artists including Richard Deacon, Barry Flanagan, Hamish Fulton, Gilbert & George, and Richard Long. Major solo exhibitions of his work have been presented at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, the Tate Gallery and the National Gallery in London.


Tony Cragg
British, born 1949

Tony Cragg worked as a laboratory technician (1966–68) before attending art school—first Gloucestershire College of Art and Design and finally Royal College of Art in London. Cragg is credited with developing more possibilities in the making of sculpture than anyone since Henry Moore. Cragg experimented and exhausted various materials to their limits, utilized found objects, and juxtaposed unlikely combinations of materials—bronze, steel, plastic, rubber, glass, wood, plaster, etc. His works range from the exquisite to the grotesque. Cragg’s Order (1989) combines two motifs—the three–lobed body of a trilobite (a marine fossil) and a vessel from a laboratory. By enlarging the primordial trilobites from their usual four–cm length to a larger–than–human scale, we experience them as if through a microscope—gigantic and threatening. With lab vessels hybridized with the trilobites, the sculptures evoke feelings of unease, suggesting disease, engineering, and evolution gone wrong.


Willem de Kooning
American, born Dutch, 1904 – 1997

A central figure in the American movement Abstract Expressionism, Willem de Kooning came to the US in 1926 and soon became friends with Armenian–born artist Arshile Gorky and other Ab–Ex artists. However, de Kooning emerged in the art scene much later, in the 1940s, and is best known for his abstract expressionist figure paintings on the theme of “woman” in the 1950s and 1960s. On a trip to Rome in 1969, de Kooning modeled his first sculptures and over the next five years he made about 25 bronze figures using the same gestural techniques and expressionist style of his paintings from the late 1960s.


Mark di Suvero
American, born China, 1933

A key figure in American post–war sculpture, Mark di Suvero creates distinctive, monumentally–scaled abstract sculptures composed primarily of industrial I–beams and heavy gauge metal, sometimes painted a solid red or orange. Many sculptures contain elements that may swing or rotate. Born in Shanghai, di Suvero moved to San Francisco with his father in 1941, attended UC Berkeley to study fine arts from 1953–1957, but ultimately earned his degree in philosophy. He later moved to New York and suffered a serious accident on a freight elevator while working construction, after which he focused all his energy on becoming a sculptor. Interestingly, construction materials became his media of choice. His work can be found in major public collections including Los Angeles County Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, the Walker Art Center, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.


Barry Flanagan
British, born 1941

Flanagan is best known for his dynamic, often monumental, bronze hares, which he began casting in 1979. He studied at the Birmingham College of Art and Crafts and the St. Martin’s School in London (under Anthony Caro). He represented Britain at the 1982 Venice Biennale. His work is held in public collections around the world and has been exhibited in many outdoor spaces, including Park Avenue in New York (1995–96) and Grant Park in Chicago (1996). Flanagan has recently had a major exhibition at the Tate Liverpool (2000) and a major retrospective exhibition at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (2006).


Ellsworth Kelly
American, born 1923

Kelly initially emerged as a leader of the Hard Edge group of Color Field painting in the 1960s with his large, bright, ovoid shapes that contrasted with sharp, rectangular color–plane background on his canvases. Kelly moved to shaped canvases, which naturally led to freestanding sculptures. His sculptures present the same geometric shapes as his paintings, although created on an environmental scale and constructed of industrial materials like Cor–ten steel. Kelly studied at Pratt Institute (1941–1943), then served for the military, after which he attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (1946–47). On the G.I. Bill, he traveled to Europe to attend the Ecole des Beaux–Arts in Paris, where his contact with many avant–garde artists influenced his work—Jean Arp, Constantin Brancusi, Alexander Calder, and Francis Picabia, among others. He returned to New York in 1954, had his first solo show at Betty Parsons Gallery in 1956, a group show at the Museum of Modern Art in 1958, and first retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in 1973. Many more major exhibitions have followed for this prominent American artist.


Martin Puryear
American, born 1941

Puryear’s sculptures combine the simplicity and gravity of minimalism presented on a human scale with an animalistic quality derived from his organic forms and unique craftsmanship.  As a youth, Puryear studied crafts and learned to build things like guitars, furniture, and canoes. After earning a BA at Catholic University in Washington, DC, he went to the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone, and later attended the Swedish Royal Academy of Art. He earned an MFA in sculpture from Yale in 1971. His African experience in the Peace Corps informs his interest in handmade objects and an aura of “magic” that seems to emanate from his elegant abstract objects. Decoy is composed of a simple, round disc base, which from one end emerges a curved wormlike form. From a distance, the sculpture assumes the shape of a hunting decoy or duck, as indicated by its title. Puryear represented the US at the Sao Paulo Bienal in 1989, won a prestigious MacArthur Prize, a Louis Comfort Tiffany Grant, and the Skowhegan Medal for Sculpture, among other awards.


Richard Serra
American, born 1939

Serra is an American minimalist sculptor perhaps best known for his controversial public art work Tilted Arc (1981), commissioned by the GSA (General Services Administration) for Federal Plaza in New York. Public outcry against the 120–foot steel slab that bisected the plaza resulted in its 1989 removal, even with opposition from the professional art community. In spite of this controversy, the New York artist has maintained a very successful career as an artist with major exhibitions and commissions worldwide for his monumental abstract sculpture, made primarily from Cor–ten steel. A San Francisco native, Serra studied English literature at University of California at Berkeley and University of California at Santa Barbara, and then fine art at Yale University. When Serra lived on the west coast, he worked in steel mills, which has obviously had a strong influence on his sculptural work.


Joel Shapiro
American, born 1941

A preeminent American sculptor, Shapiro began his career as a painter, but turned to creating minimalist sculpture in response to artists like Tony Smith and Carl Andre. He initially made his name in the 1970s with small–scale chairs, ladders, houses, and bridges installed in galleries. By the 1980s, the sculpture became large–scale, figurative abstractions, which by the 1990s became even larger scale outdoor works. Shapiro earned a BA and MA at New York University. His work can be found in major public collections, including Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Tate Gallery London, among many others. A major Shapiro sculpture stands in front of City Hall on the Principal River Walk in downtown Des Moines.


Judith Shea
American, born 1948

Shea’s early training as a fashion designer informs her work. Her early sculptures from the 1970s were simple fabric forms hung on the wall. Later, she cast clothing forms to represent the human figure. Her best known works are armless hollow dresses—symbolizing women—and empty voluminous overcoats—representing men. These variations on traditional figurative sculpture include Post Balzac (1990), which also belongs to the collection of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC. Shea earned her BA at Yale University and her MFA at Boston University. She teaches sculpture at the University of Pennsylvania.


Tony Smith
American, 1912 – 1980

This prominent Minimalist sculptor originally trained to be an architect and in 1939 began working for Frank Lloyd Wright. Smith also studied painting at the Art Students League in New York, but did not begin sculpting until 1956 at the age of 44. He realized his first exhibition at the age of 54. Architecture informs his sculpture. While recuperating from a serious car accident in 1961, Smith began making small cardboard models for 3–dimensional sculpture, focusing on geometric forms. These eventually were created on a monumental scale. Smith’s work is arguably more Expressionist than Minimalist since he focused on a sense of movement as well as a spiritual component in his art. Smith’s huge, heavy structures—usually painted black—often feature an arched form (either triangular or square) frequently turn back upon themselves, which results in a dynamic tension in the work.


William Tucker
British, born Egypt, 1935

An internationally renowned contemporary sculptor, William Tucker established a significant career in Great Britain before moving to the United States in 1978. He studied under Anthony Caro at St. Martin’s School of Art in London and represented Britain at the 1972 Venice Biennale. His work has changed significantly over the years. The early works of the 1960s and 1970s were steel or wood abstract geometric configurations. By the 1980s, the sculptor worked in bronze and made reference to human and animal forms. Overall, Tucker’s sculpture became more tactile and organic, more expressionistic. Tucker had an exhibition at the Tate Gallery in London in 1987 and a retrospective at Storm King Art Center in New York in 1988.

About the Des Moines Art Center

Recognized by international art critics as a world–class museum in the heart of the Midwest, the Des Moines Art Center has amassed an important collection with a major emphasis on contemporary art.  The collection’s overriding principle is a representation of artists from the nineteenth century to the present, each through a seminal work.  This accounts for an impressive collection that ranges from Edward Hopper’s Automat to Jasper Johns’ Tennyson, Henri Matisse’s Woman in White, Georgia O’Keeffe’s From the Lake No. 1, and Francis Bacon’s Study after Velásquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X.

The Art Center’s physical complex marries with the collection for a totally integrated experience.  The collection is housed in three major buildings; each designed by a world–renowned architect – Eliel Saarinen, I. M. Pei, and Richard Meier.  With the exception of special events, admission to the museum is free.  Hours are Tuesday – Friday 11 am – 4 pm; Saturday 10 am – 4 pm; every Thursday 11 am – 9 pm; Sunday Noon – 4 pm; closed Monday.