Mary Boone Gallery was founded in New York in 1977. The first Gallery was a small ground floor space at the renowned SoHo address 420 West Broadway. From the outset, the Gallery was committed to showing the work of innovative young artists. By the early 1980s, two artists who started with the Gallery—David Salle and Julian Schnabel—had attained international recognition. Both were given dual exhibitions with the Gallery's upstairs neighbor, Leo Castelli Gallery. In September 1981 Mary Boone Gallery expanded by completing a dramatic renovation of a truck garage directly across the street. Other prominent New York-based artists under Gallery representation during this period include Richard Artschwager, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Ross Bleckner, Eric Fischl, Roni Horn, Barbara Kruger, Sherrie Levine, Brice Marden, Matt Mullican, and Richard Tuttle. Significant international artists were also represented by the Gallery during the 1980s, including Georg Baselitz, James Lee Byars, Francesco Clemente, Jorg Immendorff, Anselm Kiefer, Jannis Kounellis, Malcolm Morley, Sigmar Polke.