By Martha Schwendener

Can you shape the narrative of art history - which is what museums generally do - at an art fair? And do we need any more of these pop-up enterprises in our lives? Haven't we had enough of art fairs?

The Independent 20th Century, held at Battery Maritime Building at South Ferry, with its hulking steel and iron Beaux-Arts facade, makes a pretty good case on both counts. In its fourth edition, and the New York fair that focuses on 20th-century art, the usual modern-art stars turn up here and there (hello, Picasso), but I made several thrilling discoveries among the 53 artists presented by 31 exhibitors. I'm inclined to think you'll find some new favorites too.

Dusti Bongé and Ralph Iwamoto at Hollis Taggart

Closer to home, the paintings of Dusti Bongé and Ralph Iwamoto at Hollis Taggart fill in yet another aspect of New York's development as an art world in the 20th century. Both painters' works shift between abstraction and representation - showing that there was no easy divide between the binary that was hotly contested in New York art circles. Where Bongé's paintings are more whimsical, though (one from around 1950 is even titled "The Whimsical Pigeon"), Iwamoto's are bold and colorful, perhaps reflecting his native Hawaii. Later he would move into minimalism - but these canvases, with their semiabstract archetypes and vegetation are a revelation.