San Francisco art collector and philanthropist Pamela Joyner is rapidly becoming an influential figure around the world. A trustee of the Art Institute of Chicago and a member of support committees at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Britain’s Tate museums, Joyner was elected last month to the 14-member Board of Trustees of the J. Paul Getty Trust. At that time, Getty Trust President James Cuno called her “an art collector of distinction,” and praised her commitment to education and her “deep understanding of the value of a research library.”

A scholarly catalog of the works she and her husband, Fred Giuffrida, have amassed, “Four Generations: The Joyner Giuffrida Collection of Abstract Art,” was published in September to strong reviews…