An angel passed on when Agnes Gund died on September 18. Agnes served as president of the Museum of Modern Art. She was a great philanthropist and an art collector. Her support of the visual arts was extraordinary. I was fortunate to experience her generosity myself for an exhibition I curated of Alfred Wertheimer‘s remarkable photographs of Elvis Presley in 1956 at the Telfair Museum in Savannah, Georgia.

Agnes was a dear friend of Kirk Varnedoe, the legendary Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art in New York from 1988 to 2001. Kirk Varnedoe happened to be from Savannah, Georgia, and the Elvis at 21 exhibition was in the Kirk Varnedoe Gallery at the Telfair Museum. 

The Telfair needed some additional funding for the exhibition and Agnes Gund graciously provided those funds, along with Fred Gretsch who lives in Savannah and has been a lifelong friend of mine. 

Kirk’s older brother, Gordon Varnedoe, was known throughout Savannah as “Batman,” as he supported and attended numerous events in Savannah dressed as Batman while driving a car that he made to look like the Batmobile. It was Gordon’s idea to bring the Elvis at 21 exhibition to the Telfair Museum. 

Thank you Aggie!

Here is a link to a post about the exhibition from 2016 https://govindagallery.com/2016/06/29/savannah/