Des Moines Art Center

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The Des Moines Art Center is an art museum, with an extensive collection of paintings, sculpture, modern art and mixed media. Artists included in the permanent collection are Edward Hopper, Jasper Johns, Henri Matisse, Francis Bacon, Georgia O’Keeffe, Mary Cassatt, Auguste Rodin,and John Singer Sargent. A large exhibition hall rotates through several themes during the year, most of which are featured from one to three months at a time. Included on the grounds are outdoor sculptures and a rose garden. An external reflecting pool is surrounded on all sides by the museum.

Some paintings from the collection are well known examples of the artist and/or movement they represent. These include Edward Hoppers "Automat", which was reproduced on a postage stamp as well as used for a cover of Time magazine, Stanton MacDonald Wright's "Synchromy" which is has been reproduced in numerous texts about the artist/movement, Francis Bacon's "Portrait of Pope Innocent" which likewise is considered a signature work by the artist and appeared in Robert Hughes "Shock of the New" BBC series in the early 1980's.

Of particular note is the architecture of the building. The original museum wing was designed in a combination of Art Nouveau and Art Deco styles by Eliel Saarinen in 1945 and completed in 1948.

The Sculpture addition was designed in a Modernist style by I.M. Pei in 1966 and completed in 1968. Legend says that Pei designed the south windows, which look out onto the rose garden, to resemble "PEI", but he has denied this.

The third wing was designed by Richard Meier and completed in 1985. This wing was designed to allow as much natural ambient light in as possible, but the Art Center later decided to cover the external windows with rattan blinds when concerns over light damage to the paintings arose. The Art Center also includes a reference library, restaurant and a gift shop. Workshops and seminars are conducted on a regular basis. Museum hours are Tuesday - Saturday from 11pm to 4pm. Admission is free, but donations are accepted.