Mary Boone, Gallery Queen of the ’80s, Is Selling Art Again

In the elevator of the uptown gallery Lévy Gorvy Dayan, which is cramped with staff, an art handler issues a sheepish but firm warning to the art dealer Mary Boone: “There’s a Warhol behind you.” He motions everyone to move gingerly to protect the painting. British New Wave plays from a speaker in the corner, intended to transport visitors to the era of the retrospective opening here in just 48 hours: “Downtown/Uptown,” a show about the spark of the New York art scene in the ’80s, with pieces by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Ross Bleckner, Keith Haring, Barbara Kruger, Julian Schnabel, Jeff Koons, Warhol — plenty of Warhol — and more across two floors of Lévy Gorvy Dayan’s Beaux-Arts townhouse.

“I seldom did installations that have so many works,” Boone says. “It’s so full. It’s over the top.”