Mary Boone Gallery:
A History in Art Ephemera
Mary Boone’s decision to close her galleries as she gets ready to begin serving a 30-month jail sentence for tax evasion, brings to a halt the storied reign of one of New York’s most public and successful dealers. Boone rose rapidly from gallery girl at the Bykert Gallery in the 1970s to being heralded in 1982 as “The New Queen of the Art Scene” on the cover of New York magazine. During the years that Soho was the art center, her gallery was one of the most prominent. She later expanded into new spaces on Fifth Avenue (1996) and then to Chelsea (2000).
Boone was strategic, persuasive, and she had an eye for talent. All three of these qualities came into play when in late 1977 she launched her gallery in a tiny ground-floor space in Soho’s most prestigious building, 420 West Broadway. Her gallery was small but it was close to some of the art world’s top dealers and she was soon collaborating with her upstairs neighbor, the legendary Leo Castelli.
Julian Schnabel’s two gallery exhibition at the Boone Gallery and Leo Castelli Gallery in 1981 was a major event that not only launched Schnabel’s career, but also brought attention to Boone’s gallery and helped publicize “neo-expressionism” as the most prominent new art style of the 80’s. A year later in 1982 Boone and Castelli successfully coordinated exhibitions again, this time with David Salle.
The Boone Gallery would secure its place in the art world when it moved across the street from 420 to 417 West Broadway transforming a large garage space into an elegant minimalist gallery. Here she continued to represent Schnabel and Salle along with others like Eric Fischl, Ross Bleckner, and for a brief period Jean-Michel Basquiat. She also had strong European connections through her then husband Michael Werner, a prominent German art dealer whose name appeared alongside Boone’s on the gallery door in the mid-80s. Neo-expressionism as an international style was enlarged by exhibitions of German artists Sigmar Polke, Jörg Immendorf and the Italian artist Francesco Clemente.
Gallery 98 has dug deep into its inventory of announcement cards, posters and art publications from the 1980s and 90s to assemble this online exhibition spotlighting some of the most important moments in the history of the Mary Boone Gallery. While most of the artists she is associated with will continue exhibiting elsewhere (Ross Bleckner is currently showing at the Petzel Gallery), it is hard to imagine a Chelsea art stroll without a stop at her gallery.
From the Collection
• Downtown Galleries
• Expressionism
• Julian Schnabel
• Leo Castelli Gallery
• Mary Boone Gallery
• Posters
• Soho/Tribeca Galleries
$450
Sold
• Artist Portraits
• David Salle
• Downtown Galleries
• Gallery Exhibition Cards
• Mary Boone Gallery
• New York City
• Robin Winters
• Soho/Tribeca Galleries
Sold
• African Diaspora
• David Salle
• Expressionism
• Gallery Exhibition Cards
• Jean-Michel Basquiat
• Mary Boone Gallery
Sold
• Downtown Galleries
• Gallery Exhibition Cards
• Jean-Michel Basquiat
• Mary Boone Gallery
• Soho/Tribeca Galleries
Sold
Sold
$100
Sold
$75
$100
-
![]()
Christy Rupp: Rats and Other Early Works, 1979–1983
CollectionsChristy Rupp achieved early fame with her art when a street poster she created became the focus of widespread media attention in 1979 during a contentious, three-week strike by NYC sanitation workers. -
![]()
IGTimes: Urban Street Culture, 1984–1994
CollectionsAmong the underground publications of the 1970s and 80s IGTimes has the distinction of being the first periodical devoted to New York street and subway art. -
![]()
A Survey of Jean-Michel Basquiat Ephemera: 1981–88
CollectionsSimilar to the way paintings by Jean-Michel Basquiat have played a key role in the frenzy surrounding contemporary high-end art auctions, the same is happening in the more limited market of vintage contemporary art ephemera. The cards, posters and publications that feature Basquiat and chart the important moments in his… -
![]()
Keith Haring Ephemera, 1979–1990
CollectionsFor Keith Haring the line separating fine art and ephemera was thin. His meteoritic career was marked by an unrelenting succession of works cutting across every medium and category of art, but his approach to making art was remarkably consistent whether he was making a large outdoor mural, a commercial… -
![]()
Andy Warhol Ephemera, Part 2: Posthumous Cards, Posters (after Feb. 22, 1987)
CollectionsThis collection features some of the announcement cards, posters and publications from after the artist’s death on February 22, 1987. Posthumous ephemera have an interesting story to tell. As successful as Warhol was in life, the full range of his creativity and prodigious production only emerged after his death. -
![]()
Talk is Cheap: A Street Poster Exhibition, 1984
CollectionsIn the 1970s and 80s much of downtown New York lay in decay but amidst the economic squalor a surprising art renaissance emerged along the district’s streets and walls. Most people remember the graffiti from that period but of equal interest was the profusion of street posters. This was the… -
![]()
Colette: On the Streets and in the Clubs, 1972–1985
CollectionsColette worked without inhibition. Acting out an inner-world of fantasies she began making photographic self-portraits, creating soft fabric environments in which she was often a crucial living presence, and exhibiting self-referential hybrid works that combined sculpture, painting, and photography. -
![]()
12 Christmas Gifts From Dianne B, Postcard Set 1983, Peter Hujar
CollectionsA recent visit to the Peter Hujar retrospective “Speed of Life” at the Morgan Library and Museum brought to mind a fashion ephemera item in the Gallery 98 collection. The Twelve Perfect Christmas Gifts from Dianne B. (1983) is a mini-portfolio consisting of a decorated cover and twelve postcards, eight… -
![]()
Letters and Ephemera: Anne MacDonald, Sam Wagstaff, Robert Mapplethorpe
CollectionsThe connection between Anne MacDonald (1942 – 2018) and Sam Wagstaff (1921 – 1987) dates back to the early 1970s when she was on the Board of Trustees at the Detroit Institute of Art where he was a curator. Despite her title, MacDonald was still in her 20s and… -
![]()
Collecting COLAB: Ephemera, Photography & Multiples, 1978–1985
CollectionsCOLAB’s ever-changing nexus of thirty to sixty artists included many who later achieved individual fame, but the group’s real contribution was the philosophy of creative engagement it advanced through collective, do-it-yourself actions. -
![]()
The Night Time Is The Right Time: N.Y.C. Nightclub Ephemera, 1980s
CollectionsBy the 1980s dozens of new nightclubs and bars including Area, Danceteria, Mudd Club, and Paradise Garage consciously strove to be part of the art world by presenting new music, art, film, video, fashion, and performance. -
![]()
East Village Eye, 1979–1987
CollectionsLeonard Abrams was just 24 years old when he started the East Village Eye in early 1979. Filling a void left after the closing of the East Village Other seven years before, and riding the wave of a newly revived East Village kick-started by CBGB and the rise of Punk,…
