ART CITIES:N.York-Studio Visit, Selected Gifts from Agnes Gund

A studio visit provides an opportunity for some of the most meaningful encounters, conversations, and exchanges between artists, friends, curators, and collectors. Agnes Gund is one of the most dedicated and steadfast of studio visitors, consistently inspired by the thrill of looking and talking with artists in the presence of their artworks.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: MoMA Archive

The exhibition “Studio Visit: Selected Gifts from Agnes Gund” celebrates Gund’s contributions as art patron, collector, and longtime Trustee of The Museum of Modern Art. The presentation pays tribute to the more than 700 works of art she has funded over the past 50 years. These gifts have come steadily and reliably during her decades of service as a key member of several departmental acquisition committees and her tenure as the Museum’s President from 1991 to 2002. The exhibition reflects the depth of her collecting by bringing together a broad-ranging group of artworks from the 1950s to today in a non-chronological display that sets visitor favorites, seldom seen works, and recent acquisitions in dialogue with one another. On presentation are works like Jasper Johns’ “Between the Clock and the Bed” (1981) or Ellswoth Kelly’s “Orange Green” (1964) as well as rarely seen works and recent acquisitions by Gund. Agnes Gund has said she believes that art “is a right, not a privilege”, and this belief has been the driving force behind her philanthropic endeavors in the art world for over four decades. Serving on the board of numerous museums and foundations, Gund typically gives between $6 million and $7 million a year through her A G Foundation, which has also donated hundreds of works to the Museum of Modern Art in New York and other museums. On top of these generous contributions, she has made it possible for 30,000 students, 90 percent of whom are under-privileged, to receive over 45,000 hours of art education a year through Studio in a School, a nonprofit organization which she founded in 1977. Her personal collection of over 2,000 works spans from 1940 to the present and includes pieces by Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Richard Serra, Ellsworth Kelly, Roy Lichtenstein, Frank Stella, John Baldessari, and many more. While presenting only a small fraction of the works Gund has given to MoMA, the exhibition aims to prove that our collection would not be what it is today without her deeply held convictions and unparalleled generosity.

Info: Curator Ann Temkin, Assistant Curator: Cara Manes, Curatorial Fellow: Mia Matthias, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), 11 West 53 Street, New York, Duration: 29/4-22/7/18, Days & Hours: Mon-Thu & Sat-Sun 10:30-17:30, Fri 10:30-20:00, www.moma.org