SFMOMA's 100-Year Fisher Collection Loan Features 735 Works with Decade-Long Exhibition Cycle

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art secured a 100-year loan agreement for the Fisher Collection, comprising 735 works by 100 artists, accompanied by a $250 million endowment gift. Donald and Doris Fisher, founders of retail chains including Gap and Banana Republic, began collecting modern and contemporary art after establishing their business in 1969. Their collection features prominent artists like Roy Lichtenstein, Alexander Calder, Andy Warhol, Gerhard Richter, and Ellsworth Kelly, some of whom became family friends. In 2009, days before Donald Fisher's death at age 81, the family decided to make the collection public, choosing San Francisco as its permanent home. The agreement mandates an exclusive exhibition every ten years for at least six months, starting in 2016, with options to extend the loan for two additional 25-year terms after 2116. The inaugural exhibition in 2016 displayed 260 postwar and contemporary works across four of the museum's seven gallery floors for nearly eight months, presented with minimal interpretive information. Doris Fisher, now 95, and their three sons were instrumental in the arrangement, which requires a representative selection to be shown periodically. The collection's display follows traditional museum presentation, with works placed on or near white walls, focusing on artist names, titles, and acquisition details.