One December morning in 2016, I got a call from Darren Walker, who was then the president of the Ford Foundation and my boss. “I need you to meet me at Aggie’s at 4 o’clock today,” he said. “We need to help her build something.” We met at the elegant Park Avenue apartment of Agnes Gund — or Aggie, as she was known to everyone. That afternoon, she sat on her sofa beneath the intricate universe of Jasper Johns’s 1963 painting “Map.” A Roni Horn totem stood near her like a sentry, and I could see the smooth, ribbonlike curve of a Martin Puryear wood sculpture in the dining room.
Gund was an avid art collector and philanthropist, and over the years she had served as the president of MoMA and donated more than 1,000 works to the museum. “I feel guilty about having so much more than most people,” she once explained in an interview. “If I can have it, others should be able to enjoy it.” She rarely sold the work, preferring to give it to art institutions.
But that afternoon, she explained that she had sold a painting from her collection, one that she loved and had lived with for 41 years. It was the iconic midcentury Pop Art work “Masterpiece,” by Roy Lichtenstein, which hung for years over the mantel in her dining room and, before that, in her home in Concord, Mass. For her, the painting was a daily and beloved connection to Lichtenstein and his wife, Dorothy, both of whom had been her friends.
The painting sold for $165 million, at the time one of the highest prices for a work of art, and Gund wanted to use the money on a campaign to end mass incarceration in the United States. It was a wildly ambitious notion, but she was determined. We were there to help her design the vision.
Over time, I came to understand how incisive Gund was about all aspects of her life, from how she dressed to the institutions she shaped. She welcomed people into her home and her life with generosity and grace, especially artists, whom she adored. She had a dry wit, a love for family of blood and choice and a painfully felt sense of right and wrong.
She grew up in a wealthy family in Cleveland, part of a generation and class that emphasized divisions. She once said she knew only one Black person, Henrietta Givens, whom her parents employed as a housekeeper and cook. Early on, she was pulled toward art, taking drawing classes as a child and memorizing the works she loved most. When her father died, she inherited a trust and became a wealthy woman. It was then that she bought her first significant work, a sculpture by the English midcentury artist Henry Moore.
Her wealth — and a divorce — gave her the freedom to move to New York with her children in her 40s. She continued to study art history and collect, going on to develop deep relationships with some of the greatest artists of the 20th and 21st centuries — Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Willem de Kooning, Louise Bourgeois, Kara Walker and many more. As Marina Abramovic put it: “So many collectors never have any relationship with the artist at all. They will buy the art, and then never meet the artist.” But Gund “found the key to our hearts and really made friends.”
Gund believed that art should be available to everyone, and this tenet informed her philanthropy. When New York City significantly cut funding for art in its public schools in 1977, she founded Studio in a School, a nonprofit to bring artists into the schools. In the 2010s, her sense of responsibility expanded after a series of infamous killings of Black men and boys, including Trayvon Martin and Eric Garner. She was influenced by books, including “The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander and “Just Mercy” by Bryan Stevenson. It was after watching Ava DuVernay’s documentary “13th,” which explored interlocking questions of race, injustice and mass incarceration, that Gund told Darren Walker she wanted to use her resources to fund criminal-justice reform and creative expression.
Over the six months after our meeting in her living room, our small team helped her design what would become the Art for Justice Fund: an organization that, from 2017 to 2023, awarded $127 million in grants to support bail reform, criminal-justice advocacy and individual artists, many of whom had themselves been in prison. Gund welcomed formerly incarcerated people into her home to share their work and ideas.
There are many stately photographs of Gund, some taken in that Park Avenue living room, attired in pale lemon, saffron, coral, teal, her hair perfectly in place — and often with a beloved painting behind her. But a different photograph is my favorite. We see her from behind, next to a barbed-wire fence, in a quilted vest. She is walking beside an African American man wearing a jacket that says “prisoner” across the back. She is touching his arm, leaning toward him.
They are standing together inside the San Quentin prison in California, where the man she is speaking to has been incarcerated. And Aggie is listening to him closely.
Elizabeth Alexander is a poet and the president of the Mellon Foundation.
The Legal Defense Fund (LDF) is deeply saddened by the passing of Agnes Gund, a devoted philanthropist whose enduring commitment to racial and social justice left a lasting impact on both communities and institutions. A renowned art collector and expert, Ms. Gund dedicated her life to using art as a vehicle for driving equity, justice, and social change. Ms. Gund passed away at her home in Manhattan on Sept. 18, 2025. She was 87 years old.
“We deeply mourn the loss of Ms. Agnes Gund, an unrelenting advocate and cherished friend of LDF,” said Janai Nelson, LDF President and Director-Counsel. “Ms. Gund was an extraordinary supporter and thought partner whose generosity and passion were matched only by her visionary insight and unwavering resolve to use her position and resources for transformative change. Ms. Gund held a core conviction that art could inspire meaningful advocacy, which guided her work to advance justice, promote equity, and further the public good. In one of her most ground-breaking contributions, Ms. Gund established the Art for Justice Fund, an innovative initiative that aims to support criminal justice reform and advance racial justice through creative arts and advocacy. Our heartfelt condolences are with her family and loved ones during this difficult time. While her loss is tremendous, she leaves behind an indelible legacy that will continue to empower and inspire generations to come.”
At the time of her death, Ms. Gund was a President Emerita and Life Trustee of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). From 1991-2002, Ms. Gund served as MoMA’s president, where she oversaw the major expansion of the museum. In 1977, Ms. Gund founded Studio in a School, a nonprofit that brings professional artists into New York City public schools, providing arts education to thousands of students and fostering creativity in underserved communities.
For many years, Ms. Gund maintained a close relationship with LDF, providing invaluable support to many causes including voting rights advocacy and scholarship opportunities for college and law students. She was also closely connected to LDF through her establishment of the Art for Justice Fund, which helped to support LDF’s Justice in Public Safety Project which addresses systemic inequities in the criminal justice system and supports those affected by over-policing and mass incarceration.
In 2017, LDF honored Ms. Gund with a National Equal Justice Award (NEJAD) for her exceptional dedication to advancing racial and social justice.
