Mary Boone

According to the Wall Street Journal the art market has officially burst. With prices dropping 30 percent and auction houses' stocks plummeting, layoffs are inevitable. Galleries are closing. And the effects are rippling through the community of collectors, dealers, and the artists themselves.

Mary Boone keeps telling us that last week's disappointing auctions were actually relatively encouraging. Only 20 percent of works sold at auction '89 she says, so this, in comparison, is not so bad.

But what does this all mean for those who have funneled money into outrageously priced contemporary and modern art works in the past decade, hoping to flip them?  read more »

Last night, when we spotted petite power-gallerist Mary Boone enjoying a cocktail at the Guggenheim (where the biannual Hugo Boss prize was awarded to Palestinian multimedia artist Emily Jacir), we wondered what the woman who contributed to the overhyped art scene of the '80s thought of the the currently deflating art market.

Just a few weeks ago at the Whitney Museum gala, Ms. Boone told us that in 1989, shortly after the 1987 market crash, only 20 percent of the artwork being put up for auction was selling. And while this week's auction at Sotheby's and Christie's seemed somewhat disappointing--68 percent of the offerings sold at Christie's on Tuesday--Ms. Boone pointed out that the figures were rather encouraging in comparison.

"I don't think they were underwhelming at all. Actually, they went better than I thought," said Ms. Boone. "People who remember the early part of the '90s are able to embrace what's happening now more quickly. It's just about how to handle it to reduce the panic."  read more »

Last night, Parker Posey said she had a cold.

“Can you tell?” the actress asked in an earnest tone. No, we assured her. And it was true. Considering the flight of otherwise red-faced, smooshy-coiffed guests who had just braved a blizzard to attend the New York Academy of Art’s Tribeca Ball, Ms. Posey, in her breezy Cynthia Rowley dress, appeared the ravishing exception.

Still, Ms. Posey was in clouds.  read more »

Are you a start-up entrepreneur looking to dive into Chelsea's art scene? Are you Chelsea royalty like Mary Boone or Leo Koenig and looking to expand your gallery empire?

Well, if so, it's time to give Eastern Consolidated a call. The brokerage firm is marketing a space at 511 West 21st Street, right near the High Line. The exisiting five-story warehouse is 88,000 square feet, but a structure at 98,750 square feet can be built as-of-right on the 19,750-square-foot site.

One lonely tenant remains at 511 West 21st, with a lease that runs through November 2008, but he's willing to leave as soon as you want.

Eastern Consolidated's Eric Anton, Ronald Solarz, David Johnson and Jared Toothman are marketing the building.

The space isn't just limited to becoming an art gallery, of course. The EC team says the space is perfect for either a hotel or a condo.

Asking price: $52.5 million.

- John Koblin

How much experience can be embodied in a rectangular patch of color?  read more »

The more Philip Pearlstein keeps on doing what he does—painting dispassionate, starkly cropped  read more »

Three years after she abandoned SoHo for Fifth Avenue and 58th Street, gallery owner Mary Boone is n  read more »

Love Boat producer Douglas Cramer has placed an order to buy the next thing that 28-year-old painter  read more »

When 32-year-old Ellen Gallagher's cool abstract paintings appeared at the Mary Boone Gallery in Jan  read more »

I.  read more »

Time has not been kind to the artwork that once held sway during the go-go art market of the 1980's,  read more »