By Jonathan Capehart
Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation, with Agnes Gund, founder of the “Art for Justice Fund,” in Walker’s office after their interview with The Post’s Jonathan Capehart for the “Cape Up” podcast on July 26. (Jonathan Capehart/The Washington Post)
“Six of my 12 grandchildren are black or brown.”
Agnes “Aggie” Gund is known around the world for her philanthropy and her art collection. In June, the president emerita of the Museum of Modern Art stunned the art world when she sold “Masterpiece,” a 1962 painting by Roy Lichtenstein she owned for decades. As the New York Times reported at the time, the sale “plac[ed] it among the 15 highest known prices ever paid for an artwork.”
But Gund stunned the social-justice world when she announced that $100 million of the $150 million proceeds would be used to start the Art for Justice Fund. Gund’s goal is to end mass incarceration, a decision driven as much by her grandchildren as by Ava DuVernay’s powerful documentary “13TH.”