Read the release here.
ICONS: Mad Rose Gallery Unveils HISTORIC Fred Stein Portrait Exhibition
Icons brings together 50 of Fred Stein’s most legendary portraits of the most influential artists, scientists, and statesmen for the first time.
EXHIBITION & OPENING RECEPTION DETAILS:
What: Fred Stein: Icons of the 20th Century & Return to Fidjrossè Exhibitions
Where: Mad Rose Gallery, Mercantile Building, 3 Main Street, Millerton, NY
When: Exhibition runs February 7 to April 30, 2026
Dual Opening Reception: Saturday, February 21, 4:00 P.M. to 6:00 PM
RSVP HERE.
MILLERTON, NY — Mad Rose Gallery is proud to announce the opening of the landmark exhibition Fred Stein: Icons of the 20th Century on view February 7 to April 30, 2026, featuring 50 iconic portraits of the figures who shaped the 20th century by Master Photographer Fred Stein:
Albert Einstein, Salvador Dali, Georgia O’Keeffe, Marlene Dietrich, Hannah Arendt, Eleanor Roosevelt, Joan Miro, Arthur Miller, Aldous Huxley, Dag Hammerskjold, Norman Mailer, Herman Hesse, Gypsy Rose Lee, Mark Chagall, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Fidel Castro…to name a few of the figures in this living pantheon of 20th-century portraits.
The public is invited to RSVP to the Dual Opening Reception of Fred Stein: Icons of the 20th Century and the concurrent exhibition Return to Fidjrossè (more information below) on Saturday, February 21st, from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM. Join the gallery in celebrating and viewing the works while enjoying refreshments in the gallery’s sophisticated atmosphere.
“We are honored to bring Fred Stein’s legacy to Millerton,” says Natalie Tyler, Gallery Director. “It’s a rare, intimate look at the figures that transformed the arts, pioneered scientific discoveries, launched revolutions, and led nations. To see Stein’s portraits in conversation with one another is to witness the 20th century in the making. Mad Rose’s Mercantile Gallery has been transformed into a living history.”
Many of these images are the definitive visual records of these historical figures. This exhibition marks the first time Stein’s portraits have been displayed together.
Fred Stein was a master at capturing psychological insight. Beginning with his pioneering work in street photography with a Leica hand-held camera, he captured some of the earliest images of public life in Paris and New York. This same immediacy infuses his penetrating portraits of the century’s great figures.
“What moved him was the desire to capture who they really were,” says Peter Stein, a cinematographer who directed the international award-winning documentary about his father’s life, Out of Exile: The Photography of Fred Stein. “My father’s collection of photographic portraits emerged from his discussions with these contemporary world leaders about their philosophy, art, and passions.”
Mad Rose Gallery’s Fred Stein collection includes his landmark street photography of Paris 1930s & New York 1940s.
View the Fred Stein Collection Online MadRoseGallery.com
Find beautifully printed historic photographs from the collection here.
Opening concurrently February 7 in the Mad Rose Mercantile Gallery:
Return to Fidjrossè
Joint Reception: Sat., Feb. 21, 4:00 P.M. to 6:00 PM
Return to Fidjrossè explores the art of the West African nation of Benin.
The exhibition emerges from a curatorial project undertaken by gallery co-founder Neal Rosenthal and The Mad Rose Foundation, a family organization, in West Africa during 2019. The featured work is curated from time the Foundation spent in the company of an artists’ collaborative situated in the Fidjrossè district of Cotonou, Benin's commercial capital, from Anne-Marie Akplogan, painter; Eric Mededa, painter; Mahoussi Pierre, mixed media, painter & sculptor; Marius Dansou, sculptor; Nobel Koty, painter; and Syl Loko, mixed media.
MAD ROSE GALLERY
Located in Millerton, New York,
Mad Rose Gallery is dedicated to presenting museum-quality contemporary & historical photography & fine art. Dedicated to curatorial excellence, cultural engagement, & cultivating connections between art and community through exhibitions, events, & educational programs.
Contact: Natalie Tyler, Gallery Director, natalie@madrosegallery.com
