Reimagining the Fisher Collection

A major swath of the museum is getting a makeover. The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection debuted at SFMOMA’s reopening in 2016, kicking off a historic one-hundred-year partnership. After ten years on view, the display was scheduled for a refresh in 2026. In Reimagined: The Fisher Collection at 10, the museum has embraced the opportunity to fully rehang and redevelop all four floors of the collection’s dedicated galleries, foregrounding storytelling and visitor experience.

“It was clear from the beginning that we wanted to reconceive how we present this collection, to tell new stories and make new connections between artists and artworks,” says Ted Mann, project assistant curator of the Fisher Collection.

In all, Reimagined: The Fisher Collection at 10 includes the newly conceived exhibitions Claes Oldenburg + Coosje van Bruggen: Thinking Big on Floor 3, Ways of Seeing: Fourteen Artists on Floor 4, Calder, Kelly, LeWitt: Fundamentals of Form on Floor 5, and Memory and Matter: Personal and Collective Histories on Floor 6. The Oldenburg + van Bruggen and Calder galleries are now on view; the rest will open on April 18.

What Is the Fisher Collection?

Doris and Donald Fisher, founders of Gap, Inc., began collecting art in the 1970s to enliven their company’s workplace. Bob Fisher, their son and Chair Emeritus of SFMOMA’s Board of Trustees, recalls, “My brothers and I all went away to school at fourteen, so my parents were empty nesters at forty. By the time I moved back to California ten years later, they had amassed quite an impressive collection. I remember the day my dad first shared the collection with immense pride. Not only was his passion evident, but I found myself in awe of the beauty of the works.”

Though they started out buying prints, their interests soon expanded. They didn’t shy away from going big: “One advantage of a large company is that you have a lot of walls to put art on, in some cases very large walls,” Fisher adds. “That gave them unlimited space to collect pieces that wouldn’t fit in a normal house.”

A hallmark of the collection is the Fishers’ close affinity with artists. “The Fishers made an effort to get to know the artists personally,” says Executive Director of the Fisher Art Foundation Laura Satersmoen. “During their travels, they would often visit artists in their studios: Agnes Martin in Taos, Anselm Kiefer in Paris, Beverly Pepper in Italy. When artists came to San Francisco, they would come to meet Doris and Don and see their work displayed at Gap Headquarters.”

“My parents collected in a very specific way,” adds Fisher. “They tried to pick the best artists and then bought their work in depth to show the richness of the artists and their creative minds.”

A new display in the Floor 4 City Galleries will explore how the Fishers built their collection over four decades and provide a glimpse into their relationships with the artists.

An Artist-Centric Strategy

SFMOMA curators, designers, and education staff who collaborated closely on the reinstallation made the Fishers’ artist-centered strategy their guiding principle. “We’re getting away from an approach based on movement or nationality,” says Mann. “[In Ways of Seeing: Fourteen Artists on Floor 4] we are looking at a heterogeneous group of artists whose work the Fishers collected and using this as an opportunity to take a new interpretive approach and to introduce the practice of each artist.”

Interpretive panels with quotations, videos, audio, and biographical information accompany works by each of the artists, who include Elizabeth Murray, Andy Warhol, and Chuck Close. “We’re really digging into who these artists are as people,” says Manager of Interpretation Kerry Butcher, whose team developed in-gallery texts, materials, and tools to help the public make meaning from the art on view throughout the reinstallation. “And humans are complex; they each have a nuanced story.”

On Floor 5, the Fishers’ deep holdings of three artists in particular allow the museum to mount mini retrospectives of each: Alexander Calder, Ellsworth Kelly, and Sol LeWitt. The exhibition Calder, Kelly, LeWitt: Fundamentals of Form will showcase the full span of their careers, from early formative works through highlights of their final years. While the previous Calder gallery on Floor 3 displayed a rotating selection, the larger space accommodates virtually all the Fishers’ works by the artist.

Visitors across generations will find ways to engage with the three artists’ distinctive and at times enigmatic processes. Although their works can appear simple on the surface, all three were deep thinkers who played with ideas of chance and serendipity, as well as masters of color, line, and form. In addition to traditional wall text, some artworks feature labels that have been written and hung lower with the youngest museumgoers in mind, while a studio space will invite everyone to try hands-on activities. Says Butcher, “It will be interactive and playful, and visitors of all ages can learn something new that they can take back into the galleries with them.”

Resonant Themes

Along with deep dives into individual artists, the reinstallation highlights themes and connections that transcend time and place. For example, a large gallery in Ways of Seeing features a transatlantic dialogue between paintings by German provocateur Sigmar Polke and American Pop master Roy Lichtenstein, who both started using comic strip–inspired Ben-Day dots in the 1960s, each to very different ends.

Floor 6, previously dedicated to the Fishers’ extensive collection of Postwar German art, now houses the exhibition Memory and Matter: Personal and Collective Histories, anchored by the multilayered, multimedia works of German artist Anselm Kiefer and South African artist William Kentridge, both of whom grappled with the weight of history in their respective countries and beyond. Other artists featured explore personal and political memory across various mediums, from Louise Bourgeois’s haunting sculpture Spider (1995) to Shirin Neshat’s powerful video Passage (2001), portraying the rituals of a Muslim funeral ceremony set in a desert landscape.

“It’s definitely a little darker and moodier,” says Butcher of Floor 6. “There are some heavy themes throughout, and things that may be outside of some visitors’ historical reference.” To provide context, wall text includes timelines and panels about events that influenced the artists’ works on view. In the adjacent landing, specially designed nooks with audio offer space to decompress and reflect.

The Visitor Experience

The project team also partnered with Prime Access Consulting, a globally recognized inclusive design firm, to create accessible experiences across all four floors. Multisensory offerings and plentiful seating for all welcome a broad audience.

“We’re hoping, through resources like visual descriptions, touch objects, and other affordances, to give visitors a richer, more accessible experience in our galleries,” says Butcher, “These offerings provide new avenues for people to experience and connect with the collection.”

The reinstallation also includes about forty works that haven’t been shown in the past decade. “Returning visitors can expect to find something quite different,” says Mann. “We naturally wanted to include the highlights, but we also wanted to show works that haven’t been seen in a while or that have not been presented at all in these galleries.” Examples include an early wire portrait by Calder, Dr. Hans Cürlis (1929); a painted metal relief by Kelly, Black over Blue (1963); and an installation by Kentridge called Larder (2007) that uses two opposing drawings and an angled mirror to explore three-dimensional illusions.

“The reinstallation is a major moment for San Francisco and SFMOMA,” says Fisher. “It’s an opportunity for visitors to experience dozens of newly exhibited works from one of the great collections of modern and contemporary art, while underscoring the city’s role as a global destination for culture and creativity. For the museum, it is an ambitious refresh that highlights SFMOMA’s leadership and vision in how art can be presented and understood. And for my family, it is deeply meaningful to see the collection reimagined in ways that will inspire new generations of audiences.”

Reimagined: The Fisher Collection at 10 includes:

Claes Oldenberg + Coosje van Bruggen: Thinking Big, on view on Floor 3

Ways of Seeing: Fourteen Artists, on view beginning April 18, 2026, on Floor 4

Calder, Kelly, LeWitt: Fundamentals of Form, on view beginning April 18, 2026, on Floor 5

Memory and Matter: Personal and Collective Histories, on view beginning April 18, 2026, on Floor 6

Learn more at sfmoma.org/fisher-collection.