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Agnes Gund

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Agnes Gund
Born(1938-08-13)August 13, 1938
Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.
DiedSeptember 18, 2025(2025-09-18) (aged 87)
New York City, U.S.
EducationConnecticut College (BA)
Harvard University (MA)
Spouses
  • Albrecht Saalfield
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1963; div. 1981)​
  • Daniel Shapiro
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1987, divorced)​
Children4, including Catherine
FatherGeorge Gund II
RelativesGeorge Gund III (brother)
Gordon Gund (brother)
Graham Gund (brother)

Agnes Gund (August 13, 1938 – September 18, 2025) was an American philanthropist and arts patron,[1] collector of modern and contemporary art, and arts education and social justice advocate. She was President Emerita and Life Trustee of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and Chairman of its International Council. She was a board member of MoMA PS1. In 1977, in response to New York City budget cuts to arts education in public schools, Gund founded Studio in a School,[2] a nonprofit that engages professional artists as art instructors in public schools and community-based organizations.

Early life and education

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Gund was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on August 13, 1938.[3] She became interested in art while a 15-year-old student at Miss Porter's School in Farmington, Connecticut. "I had a magical art history teacher who didn't just give you the artist's name and the date of the picture, she showed you how to look at artwork," Gund said.[4] Later, Gund attended Connecticut College for Women,[2] where she received a bachelor's degree in history in 1960.[3] She received her master's degree in art history from Harvard in 1980.[3]

Career

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Gund joined MoMA's International Council in 1967; she then joined the board of trustees in 1976 and served as its president from 1991 until 2002.[5] She served on the boards of the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Frick Collection, and the Morgan Library and Museum.[3] She was co-founder and Chair Emerita of the Center for Curatorial Leadership and was an Honorary Trustee of YoungArts, Independent Curators International, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland.[3][6][7]

A civic leader and staunch supporter of education, women's issues[1] and environmental concerns, among other causes, Gund was the onetime chair of the Mayor's Cultural Affairs Advisory Commission of New York City, a onetime member of the New York State Council on the Arts[3], and served on the boards of organizations such as the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center, the Andy Warhol Foundation, the Barnes Foundation, Chess in the Schools, the Frick Collection, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, the Fund for Public Schools, the J. Paul Getty Trust, and the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation.[8]

In 1997, Gund received the National Medal of Arts from President Bill Clinton, the highest award given to artists and arts patrons by the U.S. government.[2] In 1998, Gund received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.[9] In 2011, Gund was nominated by President Barack Obama as a member of the board of trustees of the National Council on the Arts.[10] In 2016, she was elected Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Arts.[11] In 2018, she was awarded the J. Paul Getty Medal.[12]

On February 14, 2020, the first-ever Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Woman of Leadership Award was bestowed on Gund by the Dwight D. Opperman Foundation and presented to her by Justice Ginsburg.[13] In October 2022, Gund received the W.E.B. Du Bois Medal, the highest honor given by Harvard University in the field of African and African American studies.[14][15]

Art for Justice Fund

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In January 2017, Gund sold Roy Lichtenstein's Masterpiece in order to provide $100 million in seed funding for the Art for Justice Fund,[16][17] which supports criminal justice reform and seeks to reduce mass incarceration in the United States. Gund described Michelle Alexander's 2010 book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness and Ava DuVernay's 2016 documentary 13th about African-Americans in the prison system as motivators for starting the fund, as well as concern for her grandchildren, six of whom are Black.[16]

Studio in a School

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Agnes Gund was founder and chair emerita of Studio in a School. Founded in 1977 in response to New York City budget cuts to arts education following a financial crisis,[3] Studio in a School has provided visual art instruction led by professional artists to over one million students in over 800 schools and community-based organizations throughout the five boroughs of New York City. Every year, more than 100 professional artists spend some 45,000 hours with over 32,000 pre-K through high school students, often in schools that would otherwise lack visual arts instruction.[18] About 90 percent of all children who participate in Studio programs come from low-income families.[19] By 2018, the Studio Institute had provided expanded programming in five cities: Boston, Philadelphia, Providence, Cleveland, and Memphis.[20] In 2017, Studio in a School received the National Arts Award for Arts Education from Americans for the Arts.[21]

Collecting

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Gund's vast collection of modern and contemporary art from the 1940s through the present ranges from modern masters, including Richard Artschwager, John Baldessari, Lynda Benglis, Lee Bontecou, James Lee Byars, Vija Celmins, Eva Hesse, Arshile Gorky, Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, Wolfgang Laib, Roy Lichtenstein, Martin Puryear, Robert Rauschenberg, Mark Rothko, Richard Serra, and Frank Stella;[22] through cutting-edge contemporary artists, such as Teresita Fernandez, Kara Walker, Lorna Simpson, Cai Guo-Qiang, Glenn Ligon, and David Remfry.[3]

Her collection consists of paintings, sculptures, photographs, prints, and furniture, with an exceptionally rich compilation of drawings. She donated hundreds of works to MoMA, numerous works to the Cleveland Museum of Art, and gave or loaned various pieces to museums around the country. Essentially all of her most valuable works that have not already been given are promised gifts to institutions.[23]

Personal life and death

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A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Agnes Gund was born in 1938 to George Gund II, president and chairman of Cleveland Trust when it was Ohio's largest bank. Agnes was the second oldest of six children.[2] Two of her brothers, Gordon Gund and George Gund, partners in Gund Investment Corporation, were the former owners of the San Jose Sharks (National Hockey League)[24] and Cleveland Cavaliers (National Basketball Association). Her brother Graham was an architect; her brother Geoff is a career teacher of economics and American history; and her sister, Louise Gund, is a Tony Award-winning theater producer of Purlie Victorious and other plays, environmentalist, women's activist, and philanthropist.[25]

Gund was married to Albrecht "Brec" Saalfield, an heir to the Saalfield Publishing Company of Akron, Ohio, from 1963 until divorcing in 1981.[26] They had four children: David, Catherine, Jessica, and Anna. In 1987, Gund later married attorney, Hunter College philosophy instructor and Columbia University and Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law instructor Daniel Shapiro, though they later divorced.[3][26]

Gund lived in Manhattan, New York City. In May 2025, Gund was featured in The New Yorker's photojournalism piece "Power Houses: Inside the Living Rooms of Notable New Yorkers".[27] She died at her home on September 18, 2025, at the age of 87.[3]

Honorary doctorates

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Gund received honorary doctorate degrees from the CUNY Graduate Center (2007), University of Illinois (2002), Brown University (1996), Kenyon College (1996), Case Western Reserve University (1995), Hamilton College (1994), Bowdoin College (2012), and University of the Arts (Philadelphia) (2021).[28]

References

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  1. ^ a b Pogrebin, Robin (2014-11-06). "A Patron Gives, of Herself and Her Art". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-06-13.
  2. ^ a b c d Colacello, Bob (November 20, 2015). "Agnes Gund, Art's Grande Dame, Still Has Work to Do". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 2017-06-13.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Grimes, William (September 20, 2025). "Agnes Gund, Who Oversaw a Major Expansion of MoMA, Dies at 87". The New York Times. Vol. 174, no. 60648. p. B-11. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved September 20, 2025.
  4. ^ Ruhling, Nancy A. (Winter 2010). "Art School Confidential: Agnes Gund Profile." Lifestyles Magazine: 55-59
  5. ^ "Agnes Gund in Conversation with Phong Bui". Brooklyn Rail. September 2009.
  6. ^ "Staff & Board | Meet the people working at YoungArts". YoungArts. Retrieved 2025-09-21.
  7. ^ Angeleti, Gabriella (2025-09-19). "Agnes Gund, collector and philanthropist who helped transform MoMA, has died, aged 87". The Art Newspaper - International art news and events. Retrieved 2025-09-21.
  8. ^ "Collector Agnes Gund, Whose Patronage Shaped the Art World, Dies at 87". Artnet News. 2025-09-19. Retrieved 2025-09-21.
  9. ^ "Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement". www.achievement.org. American Academy of Achievement.
  10. ^ "President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts," The White House news release, December 22, 2010, [1]
  11. ^ "Royal Academy of Arts Announces Election of New Royal Academician, Honorary Royal Academicians and Honorary Fellows," Royal Academy of Arts press release, April 14, 2016, [2]
  12. ^ "J. Paul Getty Trust Announces J. Paul Getty Medal to go to Thelma Golden, Agnes Gund and Richard Serra," J. Paul Getty Trust press release, March 26, 2018, [3]
  13. ^ Solomon, Tessa (Feb 7, 2020). "Ruth Bader Ginsburg to Give Leadership Award to Art Collector Agnes Gund". Retrieved Oct 5, 2020.
  14. ^ "Seven honorees to be awarded W.E.B. Du Bois Medal" (Press release). Sep 21, 2022.
  15. ^ "Laverne Cox, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar among Du Bois winners". Oct 7, 2022.
  16. ^ a b Pogrebin, Robin (2017-06-11). "Agnes Gund Sells a Lichtenstein to Start Criminal Justice Fund". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-06-13.
  17. ^ "Art for Justice: A Roundtable with Nick Cave, Bob Faust, Gabrielle Lyon, and Quintin Williams". ocula.com. 2020-11-25. Retrieved 2020-11-25.
  18. ^ "About | Studio in a School". studioinaschool.org. Retrieved 2018-05-16.
  19. ^ Sheets, Hilarie M. (2013-03-04). "Studio in a School: A Teaching Moment". ARTnews.com. Retrieved 2025-09-21.
  20. ^ "Studio Institute". Studio Institute. 2025-08-27. Retrieved 2025-09-21.
  21. ^ "Americans for the Arts Announces National Arts Awards Honorees". Americans for the Arts. 2017-10-03. Retrieved 2018-05-16.
  22. ^ Carollo, Elisa (2025-09-19). "Agnes Gund, Relentless Arts Patron and Supporter of Justice-Impacted Artists, Dies at 87". Observer. Retrieved 2025-09-21.
  23. ^ Ruhling, Art School Confidential: Agnes Gund Profile, 58.
  24. ^ Ferragher, Thomas (May 13, 1990). "Gund brothers are brood apart; Gordon and George Gund found a way to the NHL to San Jose". The Ottawa Citizen: p. B11.
  25. ^ "Louise Gund Tony Awards Info". www.broadwayworld.com.
  26. ^ a b Blasberg, Derek. "How the Record-Breaking Sale of a Lichtenstein Painting Changed Agnes Gund's Life". Wall Street Journal.
  27. ^ Laub, Gillian (May 12, 2025). "Power Houses: Inside the Living Rooms of Notable New Yorkers". The New Yorker. Retrieved May 5, 2025.
  28. ^ "Agnes Gund". Center for Curatorial Leadership. Retrieved 2025-09-21.
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