Agnes Gund, one of the most influential art patrons in the United States, has died at 87. Her collecting and philanthropy transformed the American art world, particularly at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), where she served as president from 1991 to 2002 and remained a life trustee. Gund helped fund MoMA's 2004 expansion, designed by Yoshio Taniguchi, and played a key role in bringing MoMA PS1 under the museum's aegis in 1999. She was a longtime donor of over 250 works to MoMA, including pieces by Jasper Johns, Elizabeth Murray, and Julie Mehretu, and appeared on the ARTnews Top 200 Collectors list every year from 1990 to 2018.
Gund's impact matters because she was a pioneering advocate for women artists and artists of color long before such efforts became widespread. She used her influence and resources to push institutions like MoMA to acquire challenging works, such as Adrian Piper's video installation 'What It's Like, What It Is #3' (1991), which later became the centerpiece of a major retrospective. Her legacy as a patron who supported risky, new art and championed underrepresented voices reshaped the collecting landscape and inspired a generation of philanthropists.