With great sorrow, the Goodman family and Marian Goodman Gallery announced the passing of Marian Goodman, who died peacefully of natural causes on Thursday, January 22, 2026, at her home. She was 98.
For more than six decades, Goodman stood at the center of contemporary art with a rare combination of intellectual rigor, moral clarity, and deep loyalty to artists. Revered not simply as a dealer but as a collaborator, advocate, and cultural force, she helped shape how generations of artists were seen, understood, and supported—often well before the market or institutions caught up.
Goodman was distinguished by an exceptional eye for talent and an unwavering commitment to challenging work. She introduced major European artists—many associated with Conceptual, Minimal, and postwar avant-garde movements—to American audiences, laying the groundwork for practices that were conceptually driven, socially engaged, and institutionally ambitious. Central to her philosophy was a profound sense of responsibility: to artists first, to ideas over trends, and to the belief that art’s value extended far beyond the marketplace.
“It is among the artists whose work I like that I have found the qualities I value from my own experience,” Goodman once said, citing “a humanistic concern, a culture-critical sense of our way of life, a dialectical approach to reality, and an artistic vision about civic life.”
A Life Defined by Advocacy and Intellectual Courage
Born in New York City, Goodman’s early relationship to art was shaped by her father, a passionate collector of modern art who instilled in her the discipline of looking closely. Museum visits, art history discussions, and even mounting exhibition posters at home formed the foundation of a lifelong belief in art’s power to profoundly affect human experience.
She earned an undergraduate degree in history from Emerson College in 1949 and became civically engaged as a young mother, including participating in a successful 1956 effort to prevent Robert Moses from expanding a parking lot at Tavern on the Green—an early example of her resolve and public-mindedness. In 1963, she entered the art history graduate program at Columbia University as the only woman in her class. Told by a professor that she did not fit the mold for museums or universities, Goodman pressed on undeterred, turning instead toward building new models from the ground up.
That resolve found its first major expression in Multiples, Inc., the groundbreaking art publishing company she co-founded in 1965. Over nearly three decades, Multiples, Inc. produced editions by artists who would go on to define the postwar canon, driven by Goodman’s conviction that original art should be accessible without compromising rigor or ambition. “I wanted to make art available to all, at the highest level,” she said—an ethos that would carry through every phase of her career.
Marian Goodman Gallery and a Lasting Legacy
Goodman opened her eponymous gallery in New York City in 1977, motivated in part by her belief in the epochal importance of Marcel Broodthaers and the absence of institutional support for his work in the United States. From the outset, the gallery was conceived as a site of dialogue between American and European artists, grounded in scholarship, experimentation, and long-term commitment. At a time when few women led major galleries, Goodman forged a program defined by intellectual seriousness and ethical consistency.
Her vision was inherently international. In 1995, she established a Paris presence in the Marais, further solidifying a transatlantic platform that reshaped the global contemporary art landscape. Over the decades, the gallery expanded thoughtfully—opening and closing spaces with intention, launching a Paris bookstore and project space, and, under partner leadership, inaugurating new locations in Los Angeles and Tribeca.
Equally significant was Goodman’s approach to leadership and succession. Long before it became common practice, she instituted a partner-led structure—Rose Lord, Junette Teng, Emily-Jane Kirwan, and Leslie Nolen—ensuring continuity of values and institutional memory. “A gallery is a living organism,” Goodman reflected, emphasizing collaboration, friendship, and sustained discourse as its lifeblood.
“It has truly been a privilege to work with such an extraordinary group [of artists], representing five generations of diverse thought and practice.”
—Marian Goodman
Goodman’s contributions were recognized internationally, including the Légion of Honor in France, the rank of Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters, and an honorary doctorate from The City University of New York. Yet her true legacy lives on in the artists she championed, the institutions she strengthened, and the standards she set for what a gallery could—and should—be.
Marian Goodman is survived by her daughter, Amy Goodman-Kiefer, and her husband, Joseph Kiefer; her son, Michael Goodman, and his wife, Gwen Goodman. A celebration of her life is being planned.
In an art world often defined by velocity and spectacle, Marian Goodman stood for patience, conviction, and care—values that will continue to resonate far beyond her lifetime.
Today, Marian Goodman Gallery continues to represent and show over fifty artists and estates working in the U.S. and internationally: Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Chantal Akerman, Giovanni Anselmo, Leonor Antunes, Nairy Baghramian, Lothar Baumgarten, Dara Birnbaum, Christian Boltanski, Daniel Boyd, Marcel Broodthaers, Maurizio Cattelan, James Coleman, Tony Cragg, Richard Deacon, Tacita Dean, Edith Dekyndt, Rineke Dijkstra, Cerith Wyn Evans, Andrea Fraser, Bernard Frize, Dan Graham, Pierre Huyghe, Amar Kanwar, Agnieszka Kurant, An-My Lê, Steve MᶜQueen, Julie Mehretu, Ana Mendieta, Annette Messager, Delcy Morelos, Sabine Moritz, Maria Nordman, Gabriel Orozco, Giulio Paolini, Giuseppe Penone, Edi Rama, Anri Sala, Matt Saunders, Tino Sehgal, Paul Sietsema, Robert Smithson, Ettore Spalletti, Tavares Strachan, Thomas Struth, Niele Toroni, Álvaro Urbano, Adrián Villar Rojas, Danh Vo, Lawrence Weiner, James Welling, Yang Fudong and Jongsuk Yoon.
