Gallerist and collector Alexander Iolas exhibited the works of European surrealist artists, such as René Magritte, Max Ernst, Giorgio de Chirico and Victor Brauner. He pioneered the global gallery system, opening locations in Geneva, Paris, Milan, Zurich, Madrid, and Rome.

Dealer Leo Castelli embraced emerging movements like Pop (Roy Lichtenstein, James Rosenquist, Andy Warhol), Minimalism (Richard Serra, Donald Judd, Frank Stella), and Conceptual (Lawrence Weiner, Bruce Nauman, Joseph Kosuth). The Whitney Museum’s former director, David A. Ross. once said that, “Wherever the important work was in postwar American art, Leo has been at the center of it.”

In 1974, a 25-year-old Linda Goode Bryant (1942 -) founded Just Above Midtown (JAM), an art gallery and self-described laboratory that foregrounded African American artists and artists of color. Open from 1974 until 1986, it became a cultural and community institution that offered early opportunities for artists now recognized as pivotal figures in late-20th-century art, including David Hammons, Butch Morris, Senga Nengudi, Lorraine O’Grady, and Howardena Pindell.