Farewell to Marian Goodman, the gallery owner who changed the dialogue between Europe and the United States

Marian Goodman Gallery has announced the passing of gallery owner Marian Goodman, who died of natural causes on Thursday, January 22, 2026. A leading figure in the international contemporary art scene, Goodman was recognized for her instrumental role in redefining the relationship between artists, institutions and audiences, particularly between Europe and the United States.

Marian Goodman founded the gallery that bears her name in New York in late 1977, at a time in history when the presence of women in the art system was still limited. At that time, the opening of Marian Goodman Gallery was in keeping with the work she had done in the 1960s with Multiples, Inc. the art publishing house she co-founded, and was in response to a desire to develop an innovative program with a transatlantic scope, capable of bringing together American and European artists. Throughout her work, Marian Goodman has distinguished herself by a keen ability to identify talent and an unwavering commitment to supporting works considered complex or difficult, often far removed from the more immediate dynamics of the marketplace. Through the work of her gallery, she introduced to the American public some of the leading European avant-garde artists of their time, contributing to the dissemination of conceptual and socially engaged artistic practices that would also influence later generations.

Central to her vision was a precise conception of the role of the gallerist, understood as a figure responsible to artists and the cultural system as a whole. Animated by an abiding curiosity and a pluralistic view of art, Goodman privileged the expressive and critical potential of works over market trends, building long-term relationships with the artists represented and supporting their work even within nonprofit and institutional contexts. From the gallery’s founding forward, Marian Goodman has promoted artists destined to become among the most influential voices of their generation. Consistent with the project’s international vocation, Marian Goodman has gradually strengthened its ties with Europe, opening an office in Paris, in the Marais district, in 1995. From the founding of the gallery onward, she has promoted artists destined to become among the most influential voices of their generation, contributing decisively to their establishment on the international stage.

In more recent years, Goodman has structured a continuity model by entrusting the direction to a team of partners consisting of Rose Lord, Junette Teng, Emily-Jane Kirwan, and Leslie Nolen. Longtime collaborators, the partners have carried forward the values that have defined the gallery’s program since its inception and guided its development, including a move in 2024 to the Tribeca headquarters in New York and the opening of the Los Angeles gallery in 2023.

“It is among the artists whose work I enjoy that I have found the qualities I appreciate from my own experience: a humanistic concern, a critical sense of the culture of our way of life, a dialectical approach to reality, and an artistic vision of civic life,” Marian Goodman observed.

Farewell to Marian Goodman, the gallery owner who changed the dialogue between Europe and the United States

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