In a multi-year market slowdown, numerous galleries large and small have either gone out of business or retrenched. Galerie 1900-2000, founded in Paris, opened a New York branch on Madison Avenue on the Upper East Side in February 2023 as a joint venture with Galerie Georges-Philippe & Nathalie Vallois, but the Manhattan outpost is going dark. Its last exhibition closed in September.
“We decided to close the gallery mainly because the business was quite slow even though we made some fantastic contacts with great public and private collectors but even better with institutions,” said David Fleiss, one of the gallery’s principals, in an email. Fleiss noted sales such as a Francis Picabia painting that went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, as well as placing works by other artists with the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Art Institute of Chicago.
“But we opened the gallery during difficult times in the world that led to making the market quite slow and we decided that we should close for now,” said Fleiss. He did not rule out a possible future return to New York.
In his post, Fleiss highlighted shows the gallery had staged in New York like “Air de New York. Marcel Duchamp & Francis Picabia,” in 2023; “Perceptions Unveiled: Jean Dubuffet and Allan McCollum,” in 2024; “7 Paintings and 1 Painting: Francis Picabia and Harold Ancart,” curated by Ancart, in 2024; and a 2025 show, “Eduardo’s birthday party on Ave. Gabriel,” curated by artist Oscar Murillo, including works by Arshile Gorky, Wifredo Lam, Roberto Matta, and Murillo.
The gallery organized two shows in collaboration with Galerie Georges-Philippe & Nathalie Vallois: “I remember you well in the Chelsea hotel,” from 2023, including artworks from the historic hotel’s collection, by artists from Arman to Andy Warhol; and “Elles,” with artists from that gallery’s holdings and works by Surrealist artist Leonora Carrington from Galerie 1900-2000.
Galerie 1900-2000 was launched in the French capital in 1981 by Marcel Fleiss, who had formerly co-founded Paris’s Galerie des Quatre Mouvements, and began by showing modern and contemporary art with a specialty in Dada and Surrealism. His son David joined him in 1991, and the gallery has exhibited at fairs including TEFAF (in Maastricht and New York), Art Basel (in Switzerland, Paris, and Miami Beach), Independent in New York, Frieze Masters in London, and Paris’s now defunct FIAC. The Paris gallery has staged exhibitions devoted to artists such as Joseph Cornell, Keith Haring, Sol LeWitt, Dora Maar, Francis Picabia, and Ed Ruscha, and movements such as Fluxus.
