Oral history interview with Agnes Gund, 2015

Biographical Note

Agnes Gund, born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1938, is a philanthropist, art patron and collector, and advocate for arts education and social justice. She is a founding trustee of the Agnes Gund Foundation, President Emerita and Life Trustee of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and Chairman of its International Council and Chair Emerita and board member of MoMA PS1. In 2011, she was nominated by President Obama as a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Council on the Arts. She has also served on the board of the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation

Scope and Contents

Gund describes her interest in bringing more diversity to the board and staff of the MoMA and, through advocacy and direct funding, in bringing new work to MoMA. She describes the acquisition of Bed [1955] for the MoMA as well as her gift of Rhyme to the MoMA. She describes Rauschenberg's posthumous recognition and argues that the MoMA was late in acquiring Rauschenberg's work because it wasn’t "easy" art. Finally, she speaks to her relationships with Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns in addition to the connections that bind the two together stylistically. She compares the reception of Johns' and Rauschenberg's work as well as their influences on each other, particularly Rauschenberg's posthumous influence on recent works by Johns

Subjects

• Art, Modern.
• Art--Collectors and collecting.
• Gund, Agnes--Interviews.
• Interviews.
• Museum exhibits.
• Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.)
• National Council on the Arts.
• Oral histories (literary works)
• P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center.
• Rauschenberg, Robert, 1925-2008.
• Robert Rauschenberg Foundation.
• Sinclair, Sara interviewer.

Access Conditions

Copyright by the Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York and Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, 2015