Announcing Talks at Independent 20th Century 2026

Talks & Programs at Independent 20th Century will allow visitors to take a deeper dive into many of the show’s curatorial themes, standout presentations, and market trends. Notable speakers include artists AA Bronson and Deborah Kass; current and former museum directors Klaus Biesenbach, Richard Armstrong, and Lisa Dennison; Andrew Rossi, director of The Andy Warhol Diaries on Netflix; and Sotheby’s CEO Charles F. Stewart. Other highlights include a screening of a little-seen 2015 film about Joan Mitchell, Joan’s Friends, with its creator Guy Bloch-Champfort. Independent Talks & Programs will take place on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday afternoons during the run of the show. 

Independent 20th Century talks are free with admission to the fair; purchase tickets here.

 

The Radical Intimacy of Andy Warhol

Friday, September 25th, 3:00 PM
5th Floor Lounge

Panelists: Klaus Biesenbach, Director of the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin; Andrew Rossi, writer and director of the Netflix series The Andy Warhol Diaries; Deborah Kass, artist whose work has long engaged Warhol and Pop

Moderator: Michael Dayton Hermann, Managing Director, Strategic Initiatives, at The Andy Warhol Foundation

Created when homosexuality was criminalized and largely invisible, Warhol’s 1950s intimate drawings of men transformed private desire into quietly radical acts of public artistic expression. This discussion explores the context in which these works were made, the role Warhol’s sexuality played in his artistic vision, and how it illuminates his oeuvre. The discussion will also consider why these works continue to resonate today and how they have shaped and inspired generations of queer artists and audiences.

Held in conjunction with the presentation by The Andy Warhol Foundation.

 

Reenacting the Breuer

Friday, September 25th, 5:00 PM
5th Floor Lounge

Panelist: Richard Armstrong, Director Emeritus, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, and former Curator, Whitney Museum of American Art; Ian Alteveer, Beal Family Chair of Contemporary Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and former Aaron I. Fleischman Curator, Modern and Contemporary Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Moderator: Charles F. Stewart, Chief Executive Officer, Sotheby’s

Marcel Breuer’s iconic 1966 building served as home for the Whitney Museum of American Art for 48 years and has also hosted The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Frick Collection. Now Sotheby’s New York headquarters, the legendary edifice and its history will be considered by a distinguished group of current and former New York museum leaders. At this first edition of Independent 20th Century in the space, eight solo presentations feature artists previous the subjects of one-person exhibitions in the Breuer, honoring its legacy as a space for 20th-century modernism.

 

Joan’s Friends Screening and Conversation

Saturday, September 26th, 1:00 PM
5th Floor Lounge

Panelists: John Yau, poet and critic; Guy Bloch-Champfort, creator of the documentary film Joan’s Friends, and interviewer and editor of the book Joan Mitchell: By Her Friends

Moderator: Alya Sama, Specialist, Contemporary Art, Sotheby’s

A screening of Guy Bloch-Champfort’s 2015 film Joan’s Friends is followed by a discussion about the artist and her trailblazing work with Bloch-Champfort and John Yau, who has written key essays, poems, and monographs on Mitchell. Copies of Bloch-Champfort’s 2023 book of interviews, Joan Mitchell: By Her Friends, published by Les Presses du Réel will be available for purchase and signed by the author.

Held in conjunction with the presentation by Bueno & Co.

 

AA Bronson in Conversation

Saturday, September 26th, 3:00 PM
5th Floor Lounge

Interviewer: Adam Welch, Carol and Morton Rapp Curator, Modern and Contemporary Art, Art Gallery of Ontario, and Curator of the 2022 General Idea retrospective

The seminal Canadian artist trio General Idea played parodically and subversively with the mass media and popular culture, never more so than in the early 1990s when they appropriated Robert Indiana’s “LOVE” to indelibly spell “AIDS” and “infe©ted” modernist icons such as Rietveld chairs and Mondrian paintings by altering their color schemes. AA Bronson, the group’s surviving member speaks about General Idea’s trajectory and work and its keen interest in “viral” images. Since the end of General Idea in 1994, Bronson has embarked upon an acclaimed career as a solo artist and shamanic healer.

Held in conjunction with the presentation by Mitchell-Innes & Nash.

 

Abstraction: From the Bauhaus to the Guggenheim

Saturday, September 26th, 5:00 PM
5th Floor Lounge

Panelists: Rowland Weinstein, Founder, Weinstein Gallery; Alma Luxembourg, Partner, Luxembourg + Co.

Moderator: Lisa Dennison, Chairman, Americas, Sotheby's, and former Director and Curator, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

Wassily Kandinsky pioneered abstraction in Europe in 1910. By the 1920s, he and others at the Bauhaus promoted a geometric and Constructivist mode that proved hugely influential in the United States. The German artist Hilla Rebay advocated for Kandinsky’s art and spiritual ideas and helped Solomon R. Guggenheim build his collection and New York museum. The American sculptor Sue Fuller created works with string and monofilament inspired by Constructivists such as Naum Gabo and Anni Albers. Alice Trumbull Mason, Esphyr Slobodkina, and other artists would found the American Abstract Artists group in 1937. These remarkable trajectories of modern art are the subject of several presentations at Independent 20th Century and of this discussion.

 

Collective Book Launch

Sunday, September 27th, 2:00 PM
Lobby

Several participating galleries have created publications to accompany their presentations at Independent 20th Century. Some others have brought volumes recently published about the subjects of their exhibitions. Join these galleries for celebration and conversation about these new contributions to scholarship. Titles include Bona de Mandiargues, a monograph about the Italian Surrealist; a new catalogue of the work of Icelandic Conceptual artist Ragna Róbertsdóttir; volumes about the multiples editioned by the Betsy Ross Flag & Banner Company and Multiples, Inc.; a catalogue covering the life and work of William and Marguerite Zorach; and a publication about photography and Francis Bacon.

Held in conjunction with presentations by Alison Jacques, i8 Gallery, Marian Goodman Gallery, Bernard Goldberg Fine Arts, and Michael Hoppen Gallery.

 

Market Insight: The Women of Abstract Expressionism

Sunday, September 27th, 4:00 PM
5th Floor Lounge

Panelists: Martha Campbell, Co-founder, Berry Campbell; Nick Olney, Co-founder, Olney Gleason; Marion Maneker Columnist, Wall Power and Puck 

Moderator: Kathleen Hart, Specialist, Contemporary Art, Sotheby's

Long overlooked, Abstract Expressionist women have become subject to a reassessment spurred on in part by dealers. Panelists consider the efforts that breathed new life into the market representation of some of these outstanding artists, including Elaine de Kooning (presented by Olney Gleason) and women artists championed by Eleanor Ward at Stable Gallery (presented by Berry Campbell).