The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has announced a gift of thirty-one works from the collection of trustee Pamela J. Joyner and her husband, Alfred J. Giuffrida.

The couple's collection is known for its focus on abstract work by five generations of artists of the African diaspora, with the gift comprising paintings, sculptures, and drawings by twenty American artists, including Elizabeth Catlett, Beauford Delaney, Norman Lewis, and Richard Mayhew. Featured works include Catlett's Cabeza Cantando (Singing Head) (1968), a patinated bronze sculpture, and Lois Mailout Jones's painting Peasants at Kenscoff (1955).

The gift "has inspired a reexamination of SFMOMA's permanent collection and is having a transformative impact on its galleries," the museum said in a statement. In 2019, the museum deaccessioned a painting by Mark Rothko to raise $50 million to fund more diverse acquisitions and has since acquired ninety-one works by Black artists, including fifty-five purchases in the past fiscal year.

Before becoming a trustee in January 2020, Joyner worked for nearly a decade with former chief curator Gary Garrels to help the museum diversify its collection, donating a number of works from her and Giuffrida's collection. She told Artnet News that the decision to make their latest gift came after observing "various museums increasing their commitments to a more inclusive art-historical narrative. It was easier to fill gaps in art being produced today but more challenging to go backwards in time." She added that the gift is intended to help fill gaps in the museum's collection of works by artists born before 1930 and also "to serve as a catalyst to encourage SFMOMA and its patrons to continue the good work that has been done to date."

"This group of artists was written out of mid-century modernist history only because they were Black," said Joyner in a statement. "What I want visitors to take away is that there were people of color not only working in the field but defining the character of the movement at that time."