Mary Boone

Mary Boone (born c. 1951/1952) is an American art dealer and collector.

Life

Boone moved to New York City at the age of 19 from Erie, Pennsylvania to a working class family of Egyptian immigrants. She studied Art History at Rhode Island School of Design and received her BFA in Sculpture in 1973. Boone met the sculptor Lynda Benglis at Hunter College, who introduced her to Klaus Kertess, director of the prestigious Bykert Gallery in TriBeCa, who took her on as a secretary. Dubbed the "The New Queen of the Art Scene" by New York Magazine in 1982, she would go on to play an important role in the New York art market in the 1980s.Finke, Nikki (2005-11-17),"Blame Ovitz: When Art Started Imitating Hollywood", ''LA Weekly''

/ref> She married the German art dealer Michael Werner (art dealer), Michael Werner in 1979 two years after opening Mary Boone Gallery. Swiss dealer Bruno Bischofberger partnered with Mary Boone to share artists between Europe and New York City and the two contributed to the rise and status of Jean-Michel Basquiat in the eyes of the post-war European establishment. Unlike Larry Gagosian, who by 2020 had expanded to 16 locations over New York, London, Paris, Basel, Beverly Hills, Rome, Athens, Geneva and Hong Kong, Boone's tenure remained exclusive to New York City. Boone's career as a gallerist spans the epoch formally classified as Contemporary Art and she is regarded as one of the most successful art dealers of her generation. Though Boone's reputation in the art world has fluctuated as drastrically as the art market itself over the past four decades, she is credited for fostering the careers of dozens of artists who have made significant contributions to the work of art in the late 20th and early 21st century, including Ai Wei Wei, Barbara Kruger, Laurie Simmons and Peter Halley. At the age of 67, she plead guilty to tax evasion following a highly publicized federal investigation into her financial records. Had it not been for her early release during Covid-19, Mary Boone's prison sentence would have been equivalent to that imposed on Kareem Serageldin, the Egyptian trader who in 2013 became the only banker to be prosecuted for his role in the 2008 economic crisis. Boone remains in New York City and has one son, Max.

Mary Boone Gallery

Boone opened Mary Boone Gallery in SoHo in 1977. Young and female, Mary Boone's presence in the downtown scene was a welcome disruption from the art academic elite and the conceptual and minimal approaches to sculpture that dominated the 1970s until the revival of painting in the 1980s.Cottington, David, ''Modern Art: A Very Short Introduction'', 2005, p35. Oxford University Press, Mary Boone Gallery rose to prominence by mounting the young painters associated with Neo-expressionism, all men who included Eric Fischl, Julian Schnabel, and David Salle.McGuigan, Cathleen (1985-02-85),"New Art, New Money". ''The New York Times''
New Art, New Money
/ref>Raynor, Vivien (1984-05-11),"Art: Paintings by Jean-Michel Basquiat at Boone". ''The New York Times''

/ref> Established artist Barbara Kruger was the first female artist to join Boone in 1987, surprising the art world that a leading feminist "deconstructivist" appropriation artist would join the gallery best known for championing aggressive neo-expressionist painting. Schnabel, Kruger and Fischl were joined on Boone's roster by David Salle, Ross Bleckner and Brice Marden, all of whom remain internationally renowned.

The Swiss gallerist Bruno Bischofberger chose to partner with Boone in mounting early exhibitions of Jean Michel Basquiat, who joined the rosters of Mary Boone Gallery prior to his well-received solo show there in 1984. The two galleries shared artists to bring the Neo-expressionist movement to Europe and, by contrast, to situate the work of young New York painters against the post-war contexts brought to relevance by Anselm Kiefer and Georg Baselitz.

Mary Boone Gallery played a significant role in the development of the art market in the 1980s and epitomized the international prominence of the art market in the decades following.Tittel, Cornelius (2006-05-14), "And then it went boom", ''Die Welt Am Sonntag''. and became "the dealer who epitomized the speculative '80s art world." She was the first dealer to require waiting lists for collectors to buy works that had not yet been produced, though some collectors were granted "first refusal". When the art market crashed in 1990, her sales practices were met with criticism only to be celebrated again by the 2000's.
A keen eye for strategic relevance enabled her stay afloat through selling off work in her personal collection, and by her competitive generational awareness when it came to measuring up younger generations of artists to their historical precedents. Will Cotton, Tom Sachs, and Inka Essenhigh joined Mary Boone Gallery's roster in the aughts.Haas, Nancy (2000-03-05), "Stirring Up the Art World Again". ''The New York Times''

Representation in Film and Popular Media

Mary Boone is portrayed by Parker Posey in Julian Schnabel's 1996 biographical drama, Basquiat, accompanied by Dennis Hopper as Bischofberger. During her prosecution widespread support from the art world from figures such as Pulitzer-prize winning art critic Jerry Saltz, Wendy White and Sheila Pepe poured into trial proceedings as testimony to Boone's character and her lifelong dedication to the art establishment. "Mary's been a target forEVER," Pepe tweeted, "Like all the boys aren't cooking the books." Many argued that Boone was the victim of misogyny and that prosecutors had chosen to
make an example of her as they did with Martha Stewart. In September 2018, Boone pleaded guilty to filing false income tax returns and "agreed to pay more than $3 million in restitution for taxes she owes for 2009, 2010, and 2011."

“Mary has earned historical recognition as an extraordinary gallerist of the 20th century, through her tenacious work ethic and formidable visual acuity,” said the art adviser Todd Levin, who has known Boone professionally since the 1980s. Some journalists noted the relative silence on the part of the art world at-large, and even the Guardian acknowledged the potential closure of Mary Boone Gallery as epochal. “She pioneered what we do today, she set the mold,” said New York gallerist Marc Wehby. “There was nobody bigger than her in the 1980s. But I don’t care how big you are, we gallerists are a business of small businesses. Most art galleries in New York have less than five employees. It’s a very fickle business, tastes change.”

In 2019, the critic Paddy Johnson communicated hunches on the part of Boone's legal team that her indictment was likely on the part of whistleblowers exploiting a clause that entitles those who report tax fraud to a portion of the revenue should the prosecution succeed. In a statement to ArtNews, Boone said "If I’m going to be the Martha Stewart of the art world, I would hope to do it with the same humility, humor, grace and intelligence that she did. I’m trying to be optimistic and see this as a learning experience.”

Artists

Artists who have been represented or shown by the Mary Boone Gallery include:

References

External links

Mary Boone Gallery website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boone, Mary
American art dealers
Women art dealers
Rhode Island School of Design alumni
Living people
1951 births
Hunter College alumni
People from Erie, Pennsylvania
Businesspeople from Pennsylvania
20th-century American businesspeople
20th-century American businesswomen
21st-century American businesspeople
21st-century American businesswomen