SFMOMA gets Fisher art collection Partnership with family moves museum to forefront

Interior with Sun and Dog 1988, oil on canvas, 60" x 72" by David Hockney Interior with Sun and Dog 1988, oil on canvas, 60" x 72" by David Hockney Photo: David Hockney, Doris & Donald Fisher Collection Photo: David Hockney, Doris & Donald Fisher Collection Image 1 of / 24 Caption Close SFMOMA gets Fisher art collection 1 / 24 Back to Gallery

Doris and Donald Fisher have found a home for their monumental art collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art that will keep it in the city and elevate SFMOMA to one of the world's leading showplaces of late 20th century art.

Placing the Fishers' collection of 1,100 contemporary artworks - one of the finest in private hands anywhere - at the museum will put SFMOMA in the league of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Tate Modern in London and enhance the city as a destination for art lovers internationally.

A partnership agreement between the Fishers and the museum would bring under SFMOMA's roof key works by artists such as Andy Warhol, Cy Twombly, Richard Serra, Roy Lichtenstein, Alexander Calder, Ellsworth Kelly, Willem de Kooning, Richard Diebenkorn and Chuck Close. Market prices for such works make them unobtainable by museums except by donation. Even in today's lukewarm art economy, the Fisher collection probably would be appraised in nine figures.

Bitter opposition

The fate of the collection came into question this summer after bitter local opposition caused the Fishers to withdraw their 2007 proposal to build their own museum in the Presidio, a national park.

"To lose this would have been devastating," Mayor Gavin Newsom told The Chronicle Thursday.

However, adding the Fisher collection to SFMOMA would require expanding the museum, which involves city permits, an environmental review and design plans, and the removal of a century-old building and a fire station. The process could draw neighborhood and political opposition and most likely would take at least two years.

Newsom said he and others are working to fast-track the permitting process.

Incorporation of the collection into SFMOMA promises to enhance the cultural profile of the city itself.

"It certainly has that potential," Dan Goldes of the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau said. "Eighty percent of tourists to San Francisco are repeat visitors, so ... things like this become vitally important in how we market the destination as one that's continually renewing itself and staying vibrant."

After the Presidio plan foundered, rumors began circulating that other cities were bidding for the collection. As the Fisher family reportedly considered building or refurbishing a venue South of Market, they were already in conversation with the museum.

"It's a handshake deal at this point," said SFMOMA Director Neal Benezra, "but it's based on months of discussion and on the Fisher family's long history of helping to take this museum to the level where it is today. ... There's a lot of trust in place."

The agreement with the Fishers comes as SFMOMA prepares to celebrate its 75th year in 2010.

Standing ovation

"It received a long, standing ovation from the board," said Benezra of the proposed arrangement, after he presented it Thursday to the museum's trustees. "But we have a lot of work to do to make this a reality," adding that SFMOMA is developing a new, ground-up business plan. "We have to demonstrate to ourselves and to the family that we can build something we can sustain."

Donald Fisher serves on the SFMOMA board. He and Doris and their son Robert, whose interest is photography, have long devoted time, energy and resources to the museum. The Fishers had no comment Thursday on the agreement.

The partnership presumes the success of expansion plans announced by SFMOMA in April. Estimated to cost $60 million, the museum's plan calls for a new wing that would extend south to Howard Street and would add 100,000 square feet of gallery and public space, nearly tripling what now exists.

A 'partnership,' not a gift

The museum already owns most of the land eyed for the extension. SFMOMA calls the latest Fisher family benefaction a "partnership" rather than a gift, but the plan calls for interweaving works collected by the Fishers into displays of the museum's own holdings, "where it makes sense," Benezra said.

The Fisher family will form a trust, renewable in 25 years and administered in collaboration with the museum, to care for the Fisher collection. The Fisher Trust, which apparently will own the collection, will consult closely and continually with SFMOMA's curators and conservators, as the collections' contents cut across art media.

SFMOMA already has on its calendar a summer 2010 exhibition in its existing space devoted to the Fisher collection. The event will make the public aware of a collection known firsthand mostly by art world insiders.