Donald and Doris Fisher propose new SF museum for their collection of contemporary art

In the San Francisco Chronicle, Kenneth Baker reports: “San Francisco’s stature as a cultural destination and hub of new art scholarship will jump dramatically if Gap founders Donald and Doris Fisher get their wish to build a museum for their collection of modern and contemporary art on the Presidio grounds. Containing more than a thousand works, the Fisher collection ranks among the finest of its kind in the world. In today’s overheated art economy, its value at auction might break the billion-dollar mark. That offers a blunt idea of the gift the Fishers have offered the city. But the money tells the less significant half of the story. The Fisher collection contains numerous things – early works by Alexander Calder, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Agnes Martin, for example – unobtainable at any price because comparable pieces reside only in museums. Collectors around the world covet early Warhol paintings such as the Fishers’ silver ‘Triple Elvis’ (1962), ‘Marlon’ (1963) and the pair of 1964 pictures from the ‘Most Wanted Men’ series that Warhol based on police mug shots. Admirers of Ellsworth Kelly’s art recognize his ‘Gaza’ (1952-56) and ‘Red Green’ (1968) as cornerstones of all the work he has done since. The Fishers own both.” Read more.