The Boris Lurie Art Foundation announces the passing of its founder and president, New York City gallerist Gertrude Stein (1927–2026). Westwood Gallery in collaboration with the Foundation will have a tribute exhibition to Ms. Stein in conjunction with NO!art: Downtown Rebellion (March 26 – May 9, 2026).
statement from the boris lurie art foundation
Gertrude Stein, the renowned American art dealer who founded Gallery: Gertrude Stein on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, passed away on February 27, 2026, in New York at the age of 98. A tireless advocate for avant-garde art, Stein played a crucial role in supporting the NO!art movement founded by the late artist Boris Lurie (1924-2008), and cemented her place as one of the most distinctive figures of the postwar art world.
Stein’s passing was confirmed by Anthony Williams, chair of the Boris Lurie Art Foundation, of which she served as president. “I’ve had the great fortune of working with Gertrude for more than 20 years and have always seen her as “a force of nature.” He went on to say, ”She had more energy than anyone could imagine. She had a brilliant eye for discovering, evaluating and supporting new artists.”
In 1963, during the rise of Pop Art and the increasing dominance of commercial galleries, Stein opened her eponymous gallery at 24 East 81st Street. The space quickly became a sanctuary for artists defying mainstream trends. At the heart of this rebellion was NO!art—a movement that confronted the moral failings of postwar culture, from consumerism and nuclear proliferation to the complacency surrounding American military intervention.
Stein’s inaugural exhibition featured works by Mr. Lurie, a Holocaust survivor, and marked the gallery’s uncompromising stance. Among the works was Railroad to America (1963), a provocative collage that juxtaposed pin-up imagery with photos of Nazi concentration camps. This unsettling combination embodied NO!art’s critique of historical amnesia and the perceived shallow aesthetics of the emerging Pop scene. A year later, Stein presented the infamous NO-Sculptures exhibition, commonly known as the “Shit Show.” It featured 21 sculptures made of plaster and acrylic resembling piles of excrement–an unflinching protest against the commercialization of art.
Over the following five decades, Gallery: Gertrude Stein became a crucial platform for contemporary artists across genres. Alongside showing groundbreaking work by then-emerging artists, such as Dorothy Gillespie, Allan Kaprow, and many others, the gallery also exhibited the work of luminaries such as Balthus, Hans Bellmer, Wolf Vostell, and Salvador Dalí. In 1963, Stein exhibited Yayoi Kusama’s first installation show, Aggregation: One Thousand Boats Show, which helped launch the artist’s career in the United States.
Born in Brooklyn in 1927, Ms. Stein was deeply invested in both art and social justice. She graduated from the City College of New York with a degree in art and literature, and went on to study at institutions such as the Art Students’ League and the New School for Social Research. This combination of aesthetic and intellectual rigor would become the foundation of her work as an art dealer and philanthropist.
Her professional life also encompassed public service. As program director of the New York City Department of Welfare, she developed arts initiatives and social clubs for senior citizens, bringing creative engagement into municipal settings. Stein’s involvement with the NO!art movement began through collaborations with Lurie and other artists at the March Gallery in the early 1960s. While her gallery was never as commercially successful as larger institutions, it distinguished itself by maintaining a steady commitment to the art that challenged the status quo. Her gallery was more than a space to view art–it was a place where difficult, confrontational, and socially engaged works were given the platform they deserved.
She began working as an art dealer in the early 1960s. Through collaborative artist-led exhibitions at the March Gallery, she was drawn to Mr. Lurie and the artists who would form the core of the NO!art group. The movement, which emerged in the late 1950s and early 1960s, positioned itself in stark opposition to what its members saw as the consumerist tendencies of contemporary art and the market’s growing influence. For Ms. Stein, the alliance was both personal and philosophical. She served as a patron as well as muse to Mr. Lurie.
Ms. Stein’s influence extended beyond exhibitions. During her tenure, significant works passed through the gallery into major institutional collections, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. She was a longtime member of the Appraisers Association of America, serving from 1962 to 1997, and was widely consulted for her expertise in postwar art.
After Mr. Lurie’s death in 2008, Ms. Stein formally established The Boris Lurie Art Foundation and served as its president. The foundation’s mission — to preserve and promote Mr. Lurie’s work and the work of other NO!artists — became her central focus. Through exhibitions, publications and institutional partnerships, she sought to secure a more prominent place in art history for a movement long considered marginal but increasingly reassessed by scholars and curators.
Despite the often trend-driven and financial nature of the art world, Stein remained a staunch advocate for art as a vehicle for moral inquiry. Her gallery was, above all, a space for dissent — a place where outrage, history and critique could be visualized and shared.
She is survived by son Claude Ethe and was predeceased by son Andrew Ethe.
An exhibition at NYC's Westwood Gallery (March 26-May 6) will pay homage to Gertrude Stein and her Gallery.
