May 1 - August 30, 2012

Tom Marioni, Beer, Art and Philosophy: A Memoir,

2011, Pencil on printed book on paper, 6,49 x 8,4 x 0,59 in.

www.tommarioni.com

Tom Marioni is a sculptor who has created a large body of work in drawing and printmaking.

He has lived in San Francisco since 1959.

ART HIGHLIGHTS

1969: 'One Second Sculpture'

1970: 'The Act of Drinking Beer with Friends is the 'Highest form of Art''

1970: Founded the Museum of Conceptual Art (MOCA). Closed in 1984

1975: Editor/Designer Vision Magazine

2000: Founded The Society of Independent Artists

BIOGRAPHY

In 1969, as an art action, Tom Marioni released a tightly coiled metal tape measure into the air. The instrument started out as a circle, then opened up and created a loud sound as it made a drawing in space, ... and finally fell to the ground as a line. The work was titled One Second Sculpture, and it demonstrated several principles of Conceptual Art. This type of art was new at the time but has now become a major influence on artists and on our society. A principle demonstrated by 'One Second Sculpture' is that duration can be an element in art. Another is that the lasting form of an artwork is created and later re-created in the viewer's mind. And a third principle is that elements other than the visual (in this case, sound) may be part of the form of an artwork.

Conceptual Art extended and expanded traditional art approaches in unprecedented ways. For example, instead of looking for form in things, or objects, in the world, Conceptual artists began to pay attention to forms that occur in life situations. Marioni pioneered using social situations as art, and his 1970 piece called The Act of Drinking Beer with Friends is the Highest Form of Art has become legendary. Also in 1970, Marioni founded the Museum of Conceptual Art (MOCA) as 'a large-scale social work of art.' Until it closed in 1984, he directed MOCA and at the same time continued to pursue his individual work as an artist. MOCA was the first 'alternative art space' in the United States, and its presence in San Francisco is evidence that in our time, with our fast world-wide communications, it is not necessary to live in the country's primary art center to do influential work. MOCA presented many landmark shows, (including the first Sound Sculpture show in 1970), and also provided a social situation for artists.

Tom Marioni is a sculptor who has created a large body of work in drawing and printmaking. Tree, Drawing a Line as Far as I Can Reach, 1972, set up a theme that he has developed for twenty-eight years. A work from the same time, Bird, Running and Jumping with a Pencil, Marking the Paper while Trying to Fly (1972) is the forerunner of his new color print Flying with Friends (Drypoint). In fact, most of Marioni's prints have been results of repetitive activity, his own or others'. Even his pictorial prints are dependent on his activity'a Zen-like concentration on mark-making. Marioni is interested in Asian art and thought, and the elegant spareness of his art in general has something to do with Zen philosophy. The work has a simple beauty that, like Zen, offers at the same time something to think about.

- Kathan Brown: Crown Point Press

EXHIBITIONS

Individual Exhibitions

1963 Bradley Memorial Museum of Art, Columbus, GA [Sculpture & Drawings]

1968 Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA [Sculpture]

1970 The Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA

'The Act of Drinking Beer with Friends is the Highest Form of Art' [Installation]

1972 Richard Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland [Drawings, Sculpture]

DeSaisset Museum, University of Santa Clara, CA, 'My First Car' [Installation]

Reese Palley Gallery, San Francisco, CA, 'A Seven Day Performance' [Installation]

1975 Galeria Foksal, Warsaw, Poland, 'Thinking Out Loud' [Installation]

1977 M H deYoung Museum of Art, San Francisco, CA, 'The Sound of Flight' [Installation]

Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA [Drawings & Sculpture]

1978 Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA [Drawings]

1979 'The Museum of Conceptual Art at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art,' San Francisco, CA [Installation with Free Beer]

Grita Insam Gallery, Vienna, Austria, 'The Power of Suggestion' [Installation]

Cochise Fine Arts Center, Bisbee, AZ, 'A Penny from Heaven' [Installation]

1980 Felix Handschin Gallery, Basel, Switzerland [Drawings]

Matrix, University of California, Berkeley Art Museum [Drawings]

1981 Site, Inc., San Francisco, CA, 'Paris, San Francisco, Kyoto' [Installation]

1984 Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA [Drawings]

Le Consortium, Dijon, France, 'Cutting the Mustard' [Installation]

1985 Eaton/Shoen Gallery, San Francisco, CA [Sculpture]

1986 New Langton Arts, San Francisco, CA, 'The Back Wall of MOCA' [Installation]

Kuhlenschmidt/Simon, Los Angeles, CA [Sculpture]

1987 Museo ItaloAmericano, San Francisco, CA, 'The Germans, The Italians, The Japanese' [Sculpture]

Margarete Roeder Gallery, New York, NY [Sculpture]

Yoh Art Gallery, Osaka, Japan [Drawings & Sculpture]

Margarete Roeder Gallery, New York, NY, 'Astronomy Piece' [Installation]

Marin County Civic Center, San Rafael, CA. 'Observatory Bird' [Public sculpture commission]

1989 Fuller Gross, San Francisco, CA, 'Golden Rectangles' [Wall Sculptures]

1990 Fuller Gross, San Francisco, CA [Sculpture & Photograms]

Capp Street Project A.V.T., San Francisco, CA

'The Artist Studio (Starting Over)' [Installation]

1993 Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA, 'Seascapes' [Sculpture, Drawings]

Crown Point Press, San Francisco, CA, 'Landscapes' [Prints] and 'By the Sea' [Installation]

Robert Koch Gallery, San Francisco, CA [Color Photograms]

University of Nevada, Reno, NV, 'Around the World' [Installation]

1994 Margarete Roeder Gallery, New York, NY, 'Shadowgrams' [Photograms with their objects]

1995 Refusalon, San Francisco, CA [Conceptual Works 1969-73]

1996 Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA, 'Elegant Solutions' [Sculpture]

1998 Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA [Sculpture, Drawings]

Margarete Roeder Gallery, New York, NY [Drawings]

1999 Y-1 Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden. 'beer with friends etc' 1970. [Installation]

Mills College Art Museum, Oakland, CA, 'Trees and Birds' 1969-1999 [Drawings, Prints]

Cincinnati Art Academy, Cincinnati, OH [Drawings, Sculpture]

2000 Margarete Roeder Gallery, New York, NY, [Sculpture and Drawings]

Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA, [Sculpture and Drawings]

2001 silentgallery.com, on line project, San Francisco, CA [Psychic Sculpture]

2003 Margarete Roeder Gallery, New York, NY, [Sculpture and Drawings] YBC Center for the Arts,

2004 Yerba Buena Center for Arts, 'Golden Rectangle' San Francisco, [Sculpture Installation]

2006 Contemporary Arts Center, Survey Show, Installations, Drawings. Cincinnati, Ohio

Tom Marioni 1

Selected Group Exhibitions

1970 Museum of Conceptual Art (MOCA), San Francisco, CA*, 'Sound Sculpture As'

1971 DeSaisset Museum, University of Santa Clara, CA, 'Fish, Fox, Kos'

1972 Mills College Art Gallery, Oakland, CA*, 'Notes and Scores for Sounds'

Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, CA*, 'The San Francisco Performance'

1973 Museum of Conceptual Art, San Francisco, CA*, 'All Night Sculptures'

1975 Biuro Wystaw Artyslycznych, Poland, 'Kontra punkt'

1979 Salzburger Kunstverein, Austria, 'Art as Photography'

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA, 'Space/Time/Sound'

1980 Academy der Kunst, Berlin, Germany, 'For Eyes and Ears'

ACR Museum of Modern Art, Paris, France, 'For Eyes and Ears'

Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 'Music/Sound/Language/Theater'

1982 Biennial II, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA, 'Twenty Americans'

Oakland Museum, CA, '100 Years of California Sculpture'

Rimini, Italy. Sound Art, 'Sonorita Prospettiche'

Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA, 'Sound'

Belca House, Kyoto, Japan*, 'Elegant Miniatures from San Francisco'

[Also at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA]

1983 San Francisco Art Institute, CA*, 'Art Against War'

Franklin Furnace, New York, NY, 'In Other Words'

1984 The Sculpture Center, New York, NY, 'The Sound Art Show'

San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, TX; Lock Haven Art Center, Orlando, FL;

Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MI, 'Awards in Visual Arts'

1985 Kunsthalle, Bern, Switzerland, 'Alles und Noch Viel Mehr'

Stuttgart Staatsgalerie, West Germany, 'From Sound to Image'

Oakland Museum, CA, 'Art in the San Francisco Bay Area: 1945-1980'

Otis Art Institute of the Parsons School of Design, Los Angeles, CA

'The Marriage of Art and Music for L.A.' [Installation for 'New Music America Festival']

1986 Gallery Route One, Pt. Reyes Station, CA, 'Under One Roof'

1987 Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff Center, Alberta, Canada, 'Object Lesson'

1988 Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA, 'Solid Concept'

1989 UCLA, San Jose, CA, Fresno, CA, Omaha, NB museums, 'Forty Years of California Assemblage'

Hallwalls, Buffalo, NY, 'Bay Area Conceptualism: 2 Generations'

1990 University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, 'In Site'

Sandra Gering Gallery, New York, NY. 'Drawings'. Organized by John Cage

1993 Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA, Guggenheim Soho NY, Houston, TX, Philadelphia,

PA, and Tokyo, Japan museums, 'Rolywholyover A Circus' [Traveling show organized by

John Cage.]

1994 Artists Space, New York, NY, 'Conceptual Art from the Bay Area'

[Tom Marioni and David Ireland, Installations]

Crown Point Press, San Francisco, CA [New Photogravures]

1995 Index Gallery, Osaka, Japan. Benefit for the Kobe earthquake victims.

Exit Art/The First World, New York, NY, 'Endurance'

Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA, '1965-1975 Reconsidering the Object of Art'

1996 Musees de Marseilles, France, 'The Art Embodied'

1997 Track 16 Gallery, Santa Monica, CA, 'Chain Reaction'

1998 Museum of Contemporary Art at The Geffen Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA

'Out of Actions: Between Performance and the Object 1949-1979;' traveling to:

Austrian Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna; Museu d'art Contemporani, Barcelona, Spain;

Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan; Centre George Pompidou, Paris;

Dijon/Consortium, Dijon, France

1999 Refusalon, San Francisco,CA, 'SOUND'

M.H. de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA, 'Museum Pieces'

Landesmusem, Linz, Austria, 'Die Kunst Der Linie'

2000 Generali Foundation, Vienna, Austria, 'Replay: The Beginning of Media Art in Austria'

Chester Springs Studio, Chester Springs, PA, 'Reenactment/Rapprochement'

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles CA, 'Made in California'

Krannert Art Museum, Champaign, Ill. 'Drawings of Choice' Traveling exhibition

Pasadins Art Museum, Bay Area Conceptual Art of the 70's, Pasadena, Ca.

California College of Arts, San Francisco Ca. 'Extra Art' 1960-1999 Traveling exhibition

Independent Curators International, New York, 'Walk Ways' Traveling exhibition

Baltimore Museum of Art, 'Work Ethic', Traveling exhibition, Wexner Center, Columbus. Oh.

Wesleyan University, Middleton CT. Works from LeWitt collection. 'Unexpected Dimensions'

2004 Legion of Honor Museum, 'Photo Image in American Prints', San Francisco

2005 Lyon Biennale d'art contemporain, Lyon, France

The Drawing Room, London, England. 'Sounds Like Drawing'

Rhode Island School of Design, Drawings.

Performance | Actions

1966 Worked in night club, sketching nude model, San Francisco, CA

1969 'One Second Sculpture,' San Francisco, CA

'Abstract Expressionistic Performance Sculpture,' San Francisco, CA

1970 'Sound Sculpture As,' Museum of Conceptual Art (MOCA), San Francisco, CA

1971 'Chain Reaction,' DeSaisset Museum, University of Santa Clara, CA

'Identity Transfer,' Berkeley Gallery, San Francisco, CA

1972 'Sunday; Scottish Landscape,' Richard Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland

'Sound Actions,' Whitechapel Gallery, London, England

'The Creation: A Seven Day Performance,' Reese Palley Gallery, San Francisco, CA

1973 'A Talk,' Project, Inc., Boston, MA

Concert, MOCA Ensemble, St. Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh Festival, Scotland

Concert, Institute of Contemporary Art, London, England

Concert, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA

Demonstration, University of California, Berkeley Art Museum

Radio performance, KPFA, Berkeley, CA

1974 'The Sun's Reception,' Residence of David and Mary Robinson, Sausalito, CA

'A Sculpture in 2/3 Time,' Student Cultural Center, Belgrade, Yugoslavia

'One Minute Demonstration,' Gallery of Contemporary Art, Zagreb, Yugoslavia

1975 'Duologue (with Terry Fox),' CARP, Los Angeles, CA

'Morning Action,' Salon of the Museum of Modern Art, Belgrade, Yugoslavia

'East/West,' (with Petr Stembera), Prague, Czechoslovakia

'Thinking Out Loud,' Galeria Foksal, Warsaw, Poland

'Lecture/Reception/Action,' Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN

1976 'Bird in Space: A Psychic Sculpture,' and/or Gallery, Seattle, WA

1977 'Yellow is the Color of the Intellect,' Portland Center for the Visual Arts, Portland, OR

'The Sound of Flight,' M H deYoung Museum of Art, San Francisco, CA

1978 'Now We'll Have a Party,' International Performance Festival, Vienna, Austria

'Predictions,' Alternative Art Space Conference, Los Angeles, CA

1979 'Freibier (free beer),' Vienna Performance Biennial, Vienna, Austria

'A Social Action,' Dany Keller Galerie, Munich, Germany

'Action,' Krinzinger Gallery, Innsbruck, Austria

'Liberating Light and Sound,' Pellegrino Gallery, Bologna, Italy

'Talking Drumming,' LACE, Los Angeles, CA

'A Theatrical Action to Define Non-theatrical Principles,' Santa Barbara Museum of Art,

Santa Barbara, CA

1980 'Studio Bern,' Kunst Museum, Bern, Switzerland

'Studio Basel,' Kunsthalle, Basel, Switzerland

'Bending Light,' Berner Gallery, Bern, Switzerland

'Atelier,' Centre George Pompidou, Paris, France

'Studio Berkeley,' University of California, Berkeley Art Museum

'Spirit in the Dark,' Crown Point Press, Oakland, CA

'Studio Berlin,' Akademie der Kunst, Berlin, West Germany

'Word of Mouth,' conference, Crown Point Press, Ponape Island, Pacific Ocean

1981 'Studio,' Tea house of the Saito Family, Kamakura, Japan

'Studio Chicago,' Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL

International Performance Festival, ELAC, Lyon, France

Performance Festival, Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany

1982 University of California, San Diego, CA

Folkwang Museum, Essen, Germany

Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, Germany

University of Wisconsin, Green Bay, WI

'Social Action,' Intersection Theater, Performance Festival, San Francisco, CA

'Studio Kyoto,' Ohara Shrine, Kyoto, Japan (sponsored by Belca House)

1986 'Double Portrait,' (with Shoichi Ida), The American Center, Kyoto, Japan

1996 'Studio,' WDR Radio, Acoustic Festival, Cologne, Germany

1997 The Art Orchestra, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, CA

1998 'Studio Berkeley 1980,' University of California, Berkeley Art Museum

'A Social Action, 1978,' Austrian Musuem of Applied Arts, Vienna, Austria

2000 'Studio', Chester Springs Center for Visual Art, PA.

'Beer Drinking Sonata' Acustica International, Goethe Institute, San Francisco, CA

2004 'Buddhist Band' Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco

2005 'Beer with Friends etc.' Lyon, France, Biennale

Related Professional Activities

1966 Worked in night club, sketching nude model, San Francisco, CA

1969 'One Second Sculpture,' San Francisco, CA

'Abstract Expressionistic Performance Sculpture,' San Francisco, CA

1970 'Sound Sculpture As,' Museum of Conceptual Art (MOCA), San Francisco, CA

1968-1971 Curator of Art, Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA

1970-1984 Founding Director, Museum of Conceptual Art (MOCA), San Francisco, CA

1973 Founding Director, MOCA Ensemble, San Francisco, CA

1975-1982 Editor/Designer, Vision, art journal published by Crown Point Press, Oakland, CA

1981 Artist-in-Residence, Djerassi Foundation, Woodside, CA

1985 Commencement Speaker, Cincinnati Art Academy, Cincinnati, OH

1990 Artist-in-Residence, Pilchuck Glass School, Stanwood, WA

Artist-in-Residence, The Fabric Workshop, Philadelphia, PA

1992 Consultant for public art, Central Embarcadero Project, City of San Francisco, CA

1996 Founder, The Art Orchestra, San Francisco, CA

2000 Founder, Society of Independent Artists, San Francisco

2005 Produced 'A Motion Picture', video movie with 18 San Francisco Artists

Awards, Grants and Fellowships

1976 National Endowment for the Arts: Sculpture

1980 National Endowment for the Arts: Sculpture

1981 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial: Conceptual Art

1984 National Endowment for the Arts: Sculpture

Awards in the Visual Arts: Sculpture

1986 Asian Cultural Council: Travel Grant/Japan

1998 Flintridge Foundation: Sculpture

Fleishhacker Foundation: Sculpture Books & Publications

'Invisible Painting and Sculpture', Richmond Art Center, Catalog 1969

'The Return of Abstract Expressionism', Richmond Art Center, Catalog 1969

'Sculpture Annual', Richmond Art Center', Catalog 1970

'Vision', Crown Point Press, #1 California, 1976, #2 Eastern Europe, 1976,

#3 New York City, 1976, #4 Word of Mouth, 1980, #5 Artists Photographs, 1981

'The Sound of Flight Tom Marioni', Thomas Garver, catalog M H De Young Museum, exhibition, 1977 'Tom Marioni, The Italians, The Germans, The Japanese' catalog Museo Italo Americano, 1987 'Tom Marioni Sculpture and Installations 1969-1997', self published

'See What I'm Saying', 1978, self published

'Writings on Art Tom Marioni 1969-1999', Crown Point Press, 2000

'Beer, Art and Philosophy' A Memoir, Tom Marioni, Crown Point Press, San Francisco, 2004

Sound Compositions

1969 'One Second Sculpture'

1970 'Piss Piece' for Sound Sculpture As, Museum of Conceptual Art, San Francisco, CA.

1972 'Sunday Scottish Landscape' (Violin Bird) DeMarco Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland.

'Sound Actions' Whitchaple Gallery, London, England.

1973 'MOCA Ensemble' ICA, London, England.

1974 'A Sculpture in 2/3 Time' Student Culture Center, Belgrade, Yugoslavia.

1975 'Thinking Out Loud' Galeria Foksal, Warsaw, Poland.

1977 'The Sound of Flight' M H De Young, San Francisco, CA.

1979 'Liberating Light and Sound' Pellegrino Gallery, Bologna, Italy.

Sound Compositions Continued

1980 'Studio' Kunst Museum, Bern, Switzerland.

1985 'From China to Czechoslovakia' (A world map in beer bottles), San Francisco, CA.

1991 'The Yellow Sound for Kandinsky' West Deutscher Rundfunk (radio), Cologne, Germany

1996 'Beer Drinking Sonata' The Art Orchestra, Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, CA

2004 'Breathing' Buddhist Band, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, SF.

Bibliography

Cover story. Pacific Sun, July 7-13, San Rafael, CA, 1971

'Man of Sound Vision,' Cordilea Oliver, The Guardian, Glasgow, Scotland, June 5, 1972

Interview. Prudence Juris, Studio International, June 1972

Moment #3 & #4, Student Culture Center, Belgrade, Yugoslavia, 1973

'Was it Art'' Thomas Albright, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco, CA, July 6, 1973

Interview. 'Activity as Sculpture,' Hilla Futterman, Art and Artists, London, England, August 1973

'4 Museums,' Peter Plagens, Artforum, pp. 82-84, October 1973

'The Arts in America,' Newsweek, December 24, 1973

Review. Alan Moore, Artforum, p. 78, June 1974

'Kalifornia 'Actionismus',' der Lowe #1, Bern, Switzerland, 1974

'Music for the Avant Garde,' Source, #11, 1974

Il Corpo Come Lingvaggio (La Body Art), Milan, Italy, 1974

The Painted Word, Tom Wolfe, pp. 107-08, 1975

'South of the Slot,' (Group of performances at Bluxome St.), Phil Linharas, Artweek, January 11, 1975 Interview. La Mammelle, San Francisco, CA, Spring 1976

'The Two Faces of California,' Newsweek, p. 55, September 6, 1976

'Deja Vu,' San Francisco Magazine, pp. 94-95, December 1976

'Mellow Marioni Still Off the Wall,' Thomas Albright, San Francisco Chronicle, April 30, 1977

'Report from San Francisco,' Carter Ratcliff, Art in America, May/June 1977

'Tom Marioni and the Sound of Flight,' Bill Kleb, Artweek, p.7, June 4, 1977

'An Artist's Right to Remain Silent,' Thomas Albright, San Francisco Chronicle, September 29, 1977

'Toward a History of California Performance: Part One,' Moira Roth, Arts, February 1978

'The Sound of Tooting My Own Horn,' Tom Marioni (Sound Sculpture), Journal LAICA, #22, pp. 63-64, March/April 1979

'Space, Time, Sound,' Suzanne Foley, Catalog, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1979

'Art to Make One Foam at the Mouth,' Alfred Frankenstein, San Francisco Chronicle, May 22, 1979

'Denk-Bilder,' von Walter Beyer, Observer, Vienna, Austria, June 13, 1979

Review. (Galerie Dany Keller) Suddentsce Zeitung, Munich, Germany, June 23, 1979

'Performing with Sound,' J. & N. Stodder, Tom Marioni & Terry Fox, Artweek, August 11, 1979

Performance Anthology; California Performance Art, Contemporary Arts Press, San Francisco, CA, 1980 'Performance Art Today, Expression in the Act,' Alan G. Artner, The Chicago Tribune, January 23, 1981.

Review. Kunstmuseum Bern performance, Der Bund, Bern, Switzerland, June 6, 1980

Review. Frank Cebulski, Artweek, August 14, 1982

Review. 'Marioni a Master Illusionist's Act,' Thomas Albright, San Francisco Chronicle, August 17, 1982

'The Merging of Visual Arts with the Theater,' Thomas Albright, San Francisco Chronicle, August 22, 1982

'Museums by Artists,' Art Metropole, Toronto, Canada, 1983

'Establishing an Object's Worth,' Christopher French, Artweek, January 28, 1984

Art in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1945-1980, Thomas Albright, University of California Press, 1985

'Interview #32,' Barbara Smith, High Performance, November 1985

'Marioni's Allegory of the Senses,' Kenneth Baker, San Francisco Chronicle, January 4, 1986

'Tom Marioni at Paule Anglim,' Robert Atkins, Flash Art, April/May 1984

'Five Galleries 'discover' Neglected Bay Artist,' Charles Shere, Oakland Tribune, January 14, 1986

'Persistence of Memory,' Will Torphy, Artweek, January 25, 1986

Bibliography Continued

Interview. Jamie Brunson, Expo-see, #19, San Francisco, CA, April/May 1984

Review. Bill Berkson, Artforum, May 1986

'Eaton Schoen, San Francisco,' David Winter, Artnews, April 1986

'Kuhlenschmidt/Simon,' Kristine McKenna, Los Angeles Times, August 8, 1986

'Tom Marioni, Museo Italo Americano,' Mark Levy, Art in America, June 1987

'Art for Conception's Sake,' Charles Shere, The Tribune, Oakland, CA, February 19, 1987

'National Characteristics in Elegant Puzzles,' Kenneth Baker, San Francisco Chronicle, February 18, 1987

'Object Lesson,' Leslie Dawn, Vanguard, Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff, Canada, December 1987-Jan1988

Review. Robert Atkins, Village Voice, October 1988

Review. Ken Johnson, Art in America, February 1989

'Stonehenge Chiaroscuro,' Mark Levy, Art International, p. 66, Spring 1989

'Shadow Boxes Hold Wit, Art Homages,' Kenneth Baker, San Francisco Chronicle, February 17, 1990

'Significant Engagement,' Terri Cohn, Art Week, June 7, 1990

'Art Through the Eye of the Beer Glass,' David Bonetti, San Francisco Examiner, June 8, 1990

'Marioni Rebounds at Capp St. Project,' Kenneth Baker, San Francisco Chronicle, June 16, 1990

'Crown Point Press, Paule Anglim,' Kenneth Baker, San Francisco Chronicle, February 14, 1993

'Playing with Chance and Process,' David Bonetti, San Francisco Examiner, February 17, 1993

'Paule Anglim Gallery,' Marcia Tanner, Artnews, April 1993

'Photograms at Robert Koch,' Kenneth Baker, San Francisco Chronicle, September 17, 1993

'Reconsidering the Object of Art 1965-1975,' catalog Ann Goldstein, Museum of Contemporary Art,

Los Angeles, CA, 1995

'Veterans Week, Meyer, Marioni,' David Bonetti, San Francisco Examiner, February 11, 1998

'Sacred Geometry,' Terri Cohn, Sculpture Magazine, March 1998

'Out of Actions, Between Performance and the Object, 1949-1979,' Paul Schimmel,

Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA, 1998

'Works,' Site of Sound: of Architecture & the Ear. Edited by Brandon LaBelle and Steve Roden.

Errant Bodies Press, Los Angeles, CA, 1999

'Marioni Drawings,' David Bonetti, San Francisco Examiner, December 17, 1999

Review. Ken Johnson, The New York Times, April 7, 2000

'at Margarete Roeder'. review, Sarah Valdez, Art in America, July 2000

'Tom Marioni Trees and Birds, 1969-1999', Marcia Tanner, Mills College, Oakland, CA

Performance Artists Talking in the Eighties' Linda Montano, University of California Press

Out of the Box, The Reinvention of Art 1965-1975, Carter Ratcliff, Allworth Press. NY 2000

'Epicenter' Mark Johnstone, Chronicle Books, San Francisco, CA

'It's really art drinking beer and gabbing with friends', Jesse Hamlin, SF Chronicle Feb. 13, '04

'Beer, Art and Philosophy' review, Frank Cebulski, sculpture.org/documents, July Aug '04

'Beer, Art and Philosophy, review, Alison Bing, Artweek, Sept 2004

'Beer, Art and Philosophy, review, Terri Cohn, http://stretcher.org

'New Music Box' Web Magazine, American Music Center, March 2004

'Tom Marioni at YBC, review, Mark Van Proyen, Art in America, Nov. 2004

Public Collections

Oakland Museum, CA

Santa Barbara Museum of Art, CA

Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, CA

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA

Consortium, Dijon, France

Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY

Stadtische Kunsthalle, Mannheim, Germany

Museo Italo Americano, San Francisco, CA

Chase Manhattan Bank, New York, NY

Bank of America, San Francisco, CA

Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg, Germany

M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, CA

Mills College Art Museum, Oakland, CA

California State University, Los Angeles, CA

UC Med Center, San Francisco

BEER, ART, AND PHILOSOPHY: A MEMOIR

Beer, Art and Philosophy: A Memoir. (TOM MARIONI)'San Francisco: Crown Point Press, 2003. Introduction by Thomas McEvilley. With illustrations by the author. By Frank Cebulski. 223 pp.

BOOK REVIEW

The subtitle and leading epigraph to Tom Marioni's memoir, 'Beer, Art and Philosophy: A Memoir' is appropriately, 'The Act of Drinking Beer with Friends Is the Highest Form of Art.' Those familiar with Marioni's art know immediately that this pronouncement is no idle statement of passing humor, but a proven fact of his work itself, since his studio includes a full bar where he meets every Wednesday with selected friends to drink beer, converse, and create the 'highest form of art.' (p. 27) After being removed from his position as curator at the Richmond Art Center, in Richmond, California, for his provocative and daring exhibitions, Marioni founded in 1970 the Museum of Conceptual Art (MOCA) in San Francisco. This museum became his 'life's work for a decade.'

Through the museum, he tried 'to define Conceptual Art with words and demonstrations.' He is particularly concerned with defining California Conceptual Art, as distinct and different from International Conceptual Art and New York/East Coast Conceptual Art. The distinctions he makes and substantiates through his works, and now in this memoir, are significant and clarifying. Italian Conceptual Art of the '60s and '70s, for example, is all about Arte Povera (poor art), whereas Germans usually define Conceptual Art as 'a scientific principle.' (p. 26). As an international movement Conceptual Art 'took on different forms depending on its location.' In England, prehistoric earthworks and stone circles, like Stonehenge, influenced the development of Land Art. In 'New York, Conceptual Art meant Language Art,' but a Language Art based on 'systems.' California, however, 'is like a separate country,' where there was 'no literary tradition except the Beat poets.' This judgment, of course, is not historically accurate, for it denies the clearly established literary tradition of California writers of the 19th century and those of the 1930s and '40s that included such recognized poets as Kenneth Rexroth, Robert Duncan, and William Everson (Brother Antoninus), all writing in San Francisco in the decade before the Beats. Conceptual Art in Los Angeles, for Marioni, is influenced by the beach, the weather, Hollywood, Mexico, and Japan. In San Francisco, 'the culture is European and Chinese.' And, Marioni declares, 'I am a product of that tradition.' (p. 27)

The Museum of Conceptual Art no longer exists. The 'social artwork, Café Society,' which he created in the '70s, included one of his best-known works,The Art of Drinking Beer with Friends is the Highest Form of Art (1970). This social artwork has now 'evolved into an artist's club called the Society of Independent Artists.' One of Marioni's most famous conceptual works, of course, is his sound art piece (Piss Piece), where after drinking several bottles of beer he climbed up a ladder and urinated into a bucket (with his back to the audience, he notes), which produces a sound of different tones and frequency as the bucket fills.

This art memoir is also truly an interesting personal memoir, for Marioni starts with his life as a child in Cincinnati in the '40s, tells us about his family and friends, and brings us forward with him to the present. He recounts many interesting coincidences in his life where his life touches famous artists and architects early in his career, and then later he becomes friends with them or creates works that are part of their works'like his relationship with John Cage and Marcel Duchamp and his commissioned sculpture for the Marin Civic Center, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. These stories and the explanations and descriptions of his many conceptual works of art and the circumstances surrounding their evolution and development, create a text of engaging interest with important historical context and documentary evidence.

Marioni deliberately writes in a simple style, with short epigrammatic sentences that by their very simplicity produce the depth, texture and fabric of parable. His subtle humor only lightly covers the seriousness of his intentions, however, as when, for example, he criticizes museum curators he has known for the incestuous nature of their cyclic nepotism. The drawings that accompany the text graphically recall his works and add not only pictorial interest to the book, but in fact become iconic depictions of the conceptual works themselves, like sketchy records of remembered physical events.

This is an important work for sculpture, for Marioni holds that the origin and impetus of Conceptual Art resides not in pictorial art but in sculpture. His analysis of the development and influence of Conceptual Art and its origins is indispensable for a true comprehension of this important worldwide movement. The introduction by Thomas McEvilley presents an aesthetic setting and background for the memoir and puts an art historian's perspective on Marioni's life and work. McEvilley views New York Conceptual Art as derived from the idea of the sublime, a preoccupation of Abstract Expressionist painters of the '40s that which became essentially a theological movement based on the theory of Edmund Burke. To give Marioni his due, however, he admits himself that the curator in him 'likes to talk about what my objects mean to me,' but that the mystery can disappear if 'things are overexplained.' Now when people ask him what he is working on, he replies, 'Psychic sculpture.' When they ask, 'What is that'' He says, 'It will come to you.' (p. 186)