Barbara Jakobson, one of New York's most influential art collectors and a longtime trustee of the Museum of Modern Art, died on August 25 in Manhattan at the age of 92. The cause of death was pneumonia, according to reports. Jakobson was widely recognized for her extensive network of relationships with artists, dealers, and curators that made her a central figure in the New York art world for decades.

Jakobson appeared on ARTnews's prestigious Top 200 Collectors list three consecutive times from 1990 to 1992, cementing her status as one of the era's most important collectors. She maintained close relationships with some of the most prominent dealers of her time, including Sidney Janis, Ileana Sonnabend, and Leo Castelli. Her connection to MoMA began remarkably early when an aunt gave her a museum membership at the age of 12, as she recalled in a 1997 MoMA oral history interview.

Her formal involvement with MoMA began in the 1960s when she joined the museum's Junior Council. She quickly rose through the ranks, becoming head of the Junior Council in 1971 and earning election as a full board member in 1974. During her tenure on the Junior Council, Jakobson also became a founding member of the Studio Museum in Harlem, which opened in 1968. She was instrumental in getting the institution off the ground but maintained a thoughtful approach to her involvement.

"Once we got it started, the idea was that we wouldn't just be a board of white downtown New Yorkers, we would start it, we would try to get it going and we would leave," she explained in the oral history about her role with the Studio Museum. This statement reflected her understanding of the importance of community ownership and leadership in cultural institutions.

As a MoMA trustee, Jakobson played a crucial role in several major acquisitions and decisions. She successfully persuaded Leo Castelli to donate Robert Rauschenberg's "Bed" (1955), one of the artist's first Combines, to the museum. This work has since become a cornerstone of MoMA's permanent collection. She also served on the committee that selected architect Yoshio Taniguchi to design MoMA's massive $850 million expansion, which opened to the public in 2004.

Art dealer Jeffrey Deitch, in an interview with the New York Times, characterized Jakobson as "one of a select few people who are essential to how this whole system works, how the consensus of art and quality is formed." This assessment speaks to her influence beyond just collecting, positioning her as a tastemaker and cultural arbiter in the art world.

Jakobson's Upper East Side townhouse, which she purchased in 1965 and where she raised her three children, served as both home and gallery for her extensive collection. The space was filled with works by renowned artists including Matthew Barney, Richard Artschwager, Barbara Bloom, Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon, Peter Halley, and Robert Morris. A felt piece by Morris had remained in the same location since she acquired it in 1970, demonstrating her deep commitment to living with art.

"I see the house as a vessel for an ongoing autobiographical exercise," she told Curbed in 2021 for its Great Rooms column. "I keep the transformation as proof of life." The ground floor featured a unique bar made from Con Edison barricades and designed by artist Tom Sachs. A portrait of her by Robert Mapplethorpe, representing one of many friendships she forged with artists, hung above a fireplace on the townhouse's parlor floor.

In 2005, Jakobson made headlines when she sold 41 works of art and design from her collection at Christie's auction house. The collection, which she had begun assembling in the 1950s, included diverse pieces such as a brass-and-resin chair by Italian designer Carlo Mollino, Josef Albers's "Homage to the Square: Consonant" (1957), Diane Arbus's "Xmas Tree in a Living Room, Levittown, L.I." (1963), and Frank Stella's "Felstzyn III" (1971). The outline of where the Stella once hung remained visible in her townhouse years later.

Several lots in the Christie's sale exceeded their pre-sale estimates, though the Stella painting sold for $72,000 against an estimate of $80,000 to $120,000. The entire sale generated $1.9 million, with 10 percent of the proceeds benefiting MoMA's Acquisition Fund. Jakobson used the remaining funds to commission new works for her home, including the Tom Sachs-designed bar that became a distinctive feature of her living space.

Born Barbara Petchesky on January 31, 1933, in Brooklyn, she grew up on Eastern Parkway directly across from the Brooklyn Museum. She pursued art history studies at Smith College, and during her junior year, married John Jakobson, whom she had met at age 17 just before starting college. At the time of their marriage, John was attending Harvard Business School and later built a successful career as a stockbroker. The couple divorced in 1983 after decades of marriage.

The Jakobsons moved to New York in the mid-1950s, where Barbara quickly immersed herself in the city's thriving postwar art scene. Through an introduction from her cousin, she met Leo Castelli and made her first significant purchase from Jasper Johns's inaugural show at the Castelli Gallery in 1958. However, her very first art acquisition was a work by German artist Adolf Fleischmann, a pragmatic choice born from financial constraints.

"I couldn't afford a work by Piet Mondrian, my favorite artist, so I just found the closest thing to a Mondrian that I could," she explained in the MoMA oral history. This anecdote illustrates both her passion for art and her resourceful approach to collecting, qualities that would define her throughout her seven-decade involvement in the art world.

Jakobson's philosophy toward collecting was deeply rooted in her fascination with contemporary artistic expression and her relationships with living artists. "This is what drives me and what keeps me interested in art, the art of my own time," she reflected in the oral history. "I look to the artists to let me know what we will be thinking because the artist always is there first, they're always these Cassandras, whatever it is, whether it's a new way of painting, that's why it's interesting for me to look at the work of new artists."

Throughout her remarkable life, Barbara Jakobson embodied the role of a patron who understood that collecting art was about more than acquisition—it was about fostering relationships, supporting artists, and contributing to the cultural fabric of society. Her legacy lives on through the institutions she helped build, the artists she supported, and the countless works of art that found their way into museum collections through her influence and generosity.