Review: Drinking Beer with Friends is the Highest Form of Art, hosted by Henry Urbach, curator of Architecture and Design.
By Matthew Veloz, 2-16-09
“Two cannibals are eating a clown. One asks, does something taste funny?” Tom Marioni punctuates a short talk during the first evening of The Act of Drinking Beer With Friends is the Highest Form of Art at the SFMoMA. He briefly discusses his career and the history of this social artwork and salon, which has been hosted by Marioni for almost forty years at various locations. Here hosted by Henry Urbach, Curator of the Architecture and Design department and first guest bartender. The atmosphere is relaxed, beer is free, and a guest speaker all reinvent the use of space in the museum. This event is a practice in transforming the way a space is used and interpreted, a dialogue on Museums and its various possible philosophies and practices, Urbach politely explains as he opens a bottle of Pacifico beer for visitors. The dialogue is prevalent at the SFMoMA and within Urbach’s career there; this past fall he organized an exhibition titled 246 And Counting: Recent Architecture + Design Acquisitions. Urbach placed on exhibition all of the objects he has acquired since joining the museum in late 2006, a dialogue on the process of acquisitioning and transparency. Urbach and Marioni are both adept at making transparent value and the art world. They both practice within and challenge their fields; Marioni produces art and Urbach produces a collection, even if neither act is always manifest in an object. In 2003 the artist published Beer, Art and Philosophy, a Memoir, Tom Marioni, in which he fashions a curt and entertaining insight into the art world, and discusses his career and adventures. His ideas, while relevant and applicable in most cases, are actually rebutted by the transparency within Urbach’s career and ideology.
Tom Marioni is a Bay Area conceptual artist, a pioneer who legitimized conceptual art on the west coast. He is influenced by Dadaism and Surrealism in Duchamp, Sound Art and the post-war Avant Garde in John Cage, and Performance Art in Yves Klein and Joseph Bueys. He also recognizes Zen Buddhism as a major influence. His associations with the SFMoMA, San Francisco’s Soma neighborhood, and curation run deep.
Marioni’s memoir is a cheery, humorous, and eagerly insightful account of his life and work. His experiences as an artist and curator coupled with his straightforward and simple vernacular amount to clean insight into value, collecting, and an individual’s philosophy of art. He demystifies museums and acquisitions in line with what Urbach is showing the public at 246 And Counting. On legitimizing Conceptual art in San Francisco, Marioni offers a convenient model for what makes art valuable, “...Museum boards are made up of art collectors, who buy their art from galleries. The galleries advertise in art magazines, and the magazines write about the art in galleries. The art that is written about gets collected, and the trustees influence the museums to exhibit the work of the artists they collect. The museums give that art the seal of approval, and then it increases in value.”
In contrast to this statement we have 246 And Counting. Here visitors may examine the art of collecting through an attempt at acquisitions transparency. This is quite contrary to Marioni’s insightful pondering on art confided to the system of collectors on museum boards who dictate value. The unorthodox exhibition features an interestingly organized spread of Urbach’s work. This dialogue on accessioning is an attempt at transparency and education. We have been discussing accessioning and museum practice for some time now, indeed curatorship has been under scrutiny since the first salon protests of the avant- garde artists. Here, however, we are given a glimpse into tales of individual works and given insight to practice contrary to Board- run collecting and influence. Urbach affords himself the opportunity to give the public a digestible exhibition that speaks of his goals as curator, as well of the goals of the museum.
Marioni’s structure for understanding the value and significance of art is still useful, though. Urbach used to own a gallery in Chelsea, Henry Urbach Architecture, whose success isn’t particularly questionable considering high profile artists (Le Corbusier, Diller and Scofidio, Lebeus Woods...) and high profile clients, like the SFMOMA itself. In an interview with Dwell Urbach concedes, “The SFMOMA was consistently one of my gallery’s best clients...” Mr. Urbach holds a master’s from Princeton University in the history and theory of architecture, and also has a master’s in architecture from Columbia. Henry Urbach Architecture played host to drawings, models, installations and other works; the first private gallery of its kind. His imagination paved the way for real innovation: Urbach helped solidify the careers of architecture and design firm LOT-EK and installation artist and sculptor E.V. Day. The pursuit of social betterment overrides Urbach’s philosophy and evident in his career is a concern with making architecture, especially experimental, more accessible to a broader audience. Drinking Beer With Friends was a natural move for Urbach- it appeals to a broad crowd while invoking general dialogue and bringing his department into the community. The salon featured several guest bartenders, including Neal Benezra, director of the SFMOMA . Also featured as part of the The Act of Drinking Beer was a crafts corner and a display of the 1,000 Journals Project, a fascinating collective pass- it- along record of experiences and expression. The Art of Participation, a concurrent exhibition, also featured a sculptural installation related to a 1979 salon held by Marioni at the SFMoMA.
More on the history of Marioni’s salon can be found in the memoir mentioned above, and a transcript of a cell phone guide of Urbach’s 246 and Counting can be accessed by request from the SFMoMA.
Image by Steve Rhodes
