Middle Man
Mega Galleries, Mary Boone, and Representation in the Art Market
I started thinking about middle men as I was trying to name a recent piece where the figure appears in the middle ground between a collage of my hand printed fabric. It is a portrait of my paternal grandfather smoking a cigar. The thought occurred to me and I was playing with the composition that he looked like a man making a deal: a middle man.
Middle Man, 34” x 24”
My surface impression of this trade is not particulary good becasue he is not inspired by the maker or in the service he provides for the customer. He is motivated by money, even greed.
I know so many artists who measure success if they acquire a “middle man” meaning gallery representation. At the peak of this food chain are galleries which have become more like investment advisers for the 1%. Mega galleries like Gagosian, cover over 20,000 square meters of exhibition space and have seventeen locations across the globe. Larry Gagosian’s gallery empire has billions of dollars in sales.
The art world is very different from the early 1980’s when many of these mega galleries were formed. In the US there are approximately 5,000 galleries with the most being located in New York City. Currently the number of artists who use gallery representation is about 14%.
Most artists today are entrepreneurs. They work for themselves. Services like art Store Fronts, Artsy and Etsy have become a virtual gallery. Artists, like myself; spend time on Instagram promoting their work and hustle through small local galleries or co-ops. These depend on foot traffic and artists lucky enough to get into the gallery have to promote their own art.
Larry Gagosian is one of nine men on the list of top ten galleries. Victoria Miro is the sole woman on the list. She is often called the grand dame of the London art scene. There was another female player in the world of the mega art gallery. She represented major artists like Barbara Kruger, Joseph Beuys, and Ai Wei Wei. Like Miro she came from humble beginnings and went to be celebrated as a leader in her city. Sadly she has taken herself off the list, after closing her gallery in 2019.
Infamous art dealer Mary Boone is a free woman, according to ArtNet’s gossip column, Wet Paint. It reports that Boone — who was sentenced in 2018 to 30 months in jail for tax evasion — has been released after serving just 13 months in prison in Danbury, Connecticut, because of the pandemic. Apparently Boone, a once almighty dealer who worked with Jean Michel Basquiat, Julian Schnabel and Roy Lichtenstein, among others, is now in a Brooklyn halfway house, awaiting final release.
Mary Boone was a “middleman” in the art world and a very powerful one. Boone is still iconic enough to be a popular song by Vampire Weekend released in 2024. She went to jail after pleading guilty to falsely claiming the gallery was losing money in 2018. This was a sad end to the woman who was declared “Queen of the Art Scene” by New York Magazine.
Mary Boone was the daughter of Egyptian immigrant parents. She was born in Erie Pennsylvania, but moved frequently after the death of her father when she was just three years old. She took her last name from her stepfather, an engineer and inventor. It was during a summer in Rhode Island as a teenager she visited the Rhode Island School of design that she decided to make a career for herself in the artworld. She would get her undergraduate degree there in sculpture and go on to study at Hunter College .
Mary went to New York at 19 and worked at Bykert Gallery under the tutelage of Klaus Kertess for the first year and half in the city. She was able to get an internship through a connection with feminist artist Lynda Benglis, who taught at Hunter and was dating the gallery owner. She described that experience in an interview:
“Oh, he was a wonderful person to work for. He was a scholar and he loved art and he loved artists. At Bykert I met people like Brice Marden and Chuck Close. Michael Snow and Paul Sharits. It was a pretty diverse group, not just painters. The 1970s was a great time to learn because there wasn’t that constant concern about money. I mean, the city was bankrupt, so the focus was more on the art. Artists took a lot longer to develop than they do now, and I think they became truer to themselves as a result.”
In 1977 Mary Boone opened her gallery in Soho. The gallery began by exhibiting new painters Eric Fischl, Julian Schnabel, and David Salle . The gallery only grew more successful throughout the 1980s by offering a departure from conceptual and minimal art and focusing on painting. At the time these artists and Boone were all friends who became superstars selling work that went beyond 6 figures.
Mary Boone herself repeatedly stated she was motivated not by money; but her love of artists. She genuinely liked the artists she represented and made helping them a priority. As a dealer she had a reputation for being completely supportive. At her trial, many of the artists spoke of her dedication to them.
Clients and artist alike spoke about how Mary Boone became a target because she was, like Martha Stewart; a woman who was too successful. Boone reached out to Martha at the end of her trial and decided she would go to prison with her head held high.
I found her ending very sad and in some ways, unjust. She paid 3 million for errors in a few tax returns 10 years before her sentencing. She was accused by a former partner with a 10% interest in the gallery. He claimed she underinsured art work displayed in her home and attacked her for not being able to prove luxury items were purchased with funds from sales. It seemed like a petty dispute given the value of the artwork. That small partner ended one of only few women gallerist in a very male dominated world.
I think the lack of representation in gallery ownership has an impact on the disparity in the art world. Some top galleries, like Hauser & Wirth, David Zwirner, and Pace, represent between 23% and 39% female artists. Only 8% of galleries represent more women than men. This is appalling considering 75% of MFA’s were given to women.
The gender breakdown of artists listed on the websites of the 126 male-run galleries showing at Art Basel in Miami Beach is 75% male artists to 25% female artists, a ratio of three to one. Female-run galleries show 66% male artists and 34% female artists, a ratio of two to one……….source: Google AI Search)
Disparity in representation is a reality for women in the art world, but it doesn’t stop us from making art or supporting each other. For that I am grateful.
Until Next Time…..
Margaret
Thanks for the insight into the game.
Very, very Interesting! Equality is NOT here yet! We have a long way to go still.