Marian Goodman

Marian Goodman (born Marian Ruth Geller; June 15, 1928 – January 22, 2026) was an American contemporary art gallerist. She was the founder and owner of the Marian Goodman Gallery, a contemporary art gallery that opened in Manhattan, New York, in 1977. Considered one of the most influential gallerists in contemporary art, Goodman is known for introducing European artists such as Gerhard Richter, Joseph Beuys, and Marcel Broodthaers to the United States.

Goodman gained prominence in the art world in the 1970s and 1980s, a time when few women worked in this sector. Her gallery has represented a number of artists including Steve McQueen, Thomas Struth, Pierre Huyghe, Thomas Schütte, Lothar Baumgarten, Tony Cragg, Richard Deacon, Tacita Dean, Christian Boltanski, Annette Messager, Chantal Akerman, Niele Toroni, Gabriel Orozco, Maurizio Cattelan, Giuseppe Penone, Giovanni Anselmo, Jeff Wall, Rineke Dijkstra, and William Kentridge. In 1956, Goodman was one of a group of mothers who successfully battled Robert Moses when he tried to expand the parking lot at Tavern on the Green, forcing him to build a playground instead. In 1963, Goodman attended graduate school in art history at Columbia University. She was the only woman in her class. Multiples also operated a space on La Cienega Boulevard on the Westside of Los Angeles for two years in the 1970s.

In 2014, the gallery opened an outpost in London, located in an space over two floors inside a former factory warehouse at Golden Square; the architect David Adjaye renovated the space. At the end of 2020, Goodman announced the London space would close due to the impacts of Brexit and COVID-19 and be replaced by a new initiative, Marian Goodman Projects, that has been conducting exhibits at other locations throughout the city since 2021.

In 2018, Goodman celebrated her 90th birthday at the palace and gardens of Versailles. In 2021, Goodman appointed Rose Lord, Junette Teng, Emily-Jane Kirwan, Leslie Nolen and Philipp Kaiser as partners in the Marian Goodman Gallery. The gallery also established an advisory committee of five longtime staff members to support the partners. Philipp Kaiser exited in May 2025. Also in 2022, the gallery announced that it would expand to Los Angeles by 2023, taking over a warehouse campus from the 1920s in Hollywood, designed by architectural firm Johnston Marklee & Associates and located at 1120 Seward Street. Renovated by the architecture firm StudioMDA, the site include two floors of public exhibition space, one floor of private viewing rooms, a library and an archive in addition to art storage and office space.

Artists Goodman has stated that she believes a dealer should be committed to working with an artist for fifteen to twenty years. As of 2023, the gallery mostly represents non-American artists, including: Eija-Liisa Ahtila Giovanni Anselmo Maurizio Cattelan James Coleman Tony Cragg Richard Deacon Tacita Dean Edith Dekyndt Rineke Dijkstra Pierre Huyghe Steve McQueen Annette Messager Delcy Morelos Gabriel Orozco Giuseppe Penone Anri Sala Danh Vo

Kentridge, Struth and Orozco, like most of Goodman's artists, joined her relatively early in their careers. One exception is Richter, who had three exhibitions with Sperone Westwater before deciding to show simultaneously there and with Goodman. After several years of this joint arrangement, he dropped the original gallery. Maria Nordman Cristina Iglesias (until 2025) William Kentridge (1999–2024) Anselm Kiefer Juan Muñoz (1990–2020) Gerhard Richter (1985 Hiroshi Sugimoto (until 2024) Allen Ruppersberg Jeff Wall (until 2016) Francesca Woodman Michael Govan, director of Dia Art Foundation, describes her as one of the most powerful and influential dealers of the 20th century.

Described by Artnet as a "very private dealer", Marian Goodman was ranked 22 in ArtReview's guide to the 100 most powerful figures in contemporary art: Power 100, 2010. She was ranked 5th on the list of America's Most Powerful Art Dealers, according to Forbes magazine.

Later life In 2012, Goodman received an honorary degree from the CUNY Graduate Center. In 2016 she received the Leo Award, presented by Independent Curators International. Goodman died in Los Angeles on January 22, 2026, at the age of 97.