Mari Lyons bio — Mari Lyons Studio

Mari Lyons (1935-2016)

Mari sought to be a “complete painter,” and over her long career worked regularly in charcoal, pastel, and oil – in her studio and plein air. She worked in a variety of genres – still life, cityscape, studio interior, landscape, portrait, self-portrait, abstraction, and figure. She rallied to Herman Melville's call in Moby-Dick, "I try all things, I achieve what I can.”

She studied at Mills College (with Max Beckmann and Fletcher Martin); Bard College (with Louis Schanker and Ludwig Sander, Stefan Hirsch), BA; Atelier 17 (with Stanley William Hayter); The Grand Chaumiere; Yale-Norfolk Art School (with Bernard Chaet and Gabor Peterdi); and at the Cranbrook Academy Of Art (with Zoltan Zepeshy, Madison Fred Mitchell), MFA. She exhibited widely throughout the country and one of her Montana Landscapes traveled to Tunis as part of the Art-in-Embassies Program of The U.S. Department of State.

Lyons had fifteen one-person shows at First Street Gallery in New York City, along with one and two-person shows at Rider University, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Kirkland Art Center (Clinton, NY), Windham Fine Arts (Windham, NY), Polari Gallery (Woodstock, NY), The Forsythe Gallery (Ann Arbor, MI); and more.

Mari was married to the writer and book publisher, Nick Lyons. Their family includes four children and four grandchildren. She maintained studios in New York City and Woodstock, New York. She Died April 3, 2016.

Mari leaves behind hundreds of paintings and drawings. Over the next years, more of her work will be visible, through exhibitions, contributions and updates to this website.

Mari Lyons work in selected corporate and museum collections:

Museum of the City of New York (New York, NY)

The New York State Museum (Albany, NY)

Montana Historical Society (Helena, MT)

Montana State University Library (Bozeman, MT)

Bard College (Rhinebeck, NY)

Wellesley College (Wellesley, MA)

Borough of Manhattan Community College (NYC)

The DeGolyer Library at Southern Methodist University (Dallas, TX_

Rider University (Lawrenceville, NJ)

Reynolds Community College (Richmond, VA)

Mills College (Oakland, CA)

Russell Sage College (Troy, NY)

The Rudolf Steiner School (NYC)

Montana Museum of Art and Culture (Missoula, MT)

Climate Central Foundation (Princeton, NJ and Palo Alto, CA)

Wolff Sesnon & Buttery (Los Angeles, CA)

Skyhorse Publishing (NYC)

Goldsmith, Agio, and Helms (Minneapolis, MN)

New York Pilates (NYC)

Suffolk County Community College (Selden, Long Island NY)

Waldorf Steiner (Amherst, MA)

Selected Private Collections:
Her work is in more than 120 private collections including those of Paul Volcker, Howell Raines, Robert Benton, Jane Timken, Prof Theodore Weiss, Dean Jean Paul Slusser (then curator, University of Michigan Museum), Prof David Gordon, Judge Roderic Duncan, Dr. Gary Sherman, Morton Seaman, Alexander Bing III, Nancy and Alan Zakon, Kermit and Barbara Hummel, R. Palmer Baker, Richard Cohen, Douglas Ewing, Phillippe Benair, Elizabeth Brooks, Katherine Butler, and many others.

EDUCATION

1950-51 Mills College, Oakland, CA (Summer programs, first with Max Beckmann, then Fletcher Martin. One-Person exhibition, 1950, arranged by Beckmann.

1953 -57 Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY (Studied with Louis Schanker, Ludwig Sander, Stefan Hirsch.) BA, 1957, with honors.

1955 - 56 Atelier 17 (with Stanley William Hayter); Grand Chaumiere; Atelier Leger (six-month in Paris)

1956 Yale-Norfolk Art School (Studied with Bernard Chaet, Gabor Peterdi – summer program)

1957 - 8 Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI (Studied with Zoltan Zepheshy, Madison Fred Mitchell), MFA, 1958

EXHIBITIONS: (one person, except as noted)

2018 First Street Gallery (NYC)--"The Vital Street," memorial exhibition
2017 Bowery Gallery (NYC) Memorial exhibition

1996-2015 Eight exhibitions at First Street Gallery (NYC)
2014 West Beth Gallery (NYC)--group show

2013 Kirkland Art Center, Clinton (NY)

2012 Fairleigh Dickinson University Gallery (NJ)

2006 Rider University (two-person, with John Dubrow--curated by Deborah Rosenthal)

2004 Windham Fine Arts, Windham (NY)--two person

2001 Sylvia White Gallery (group, Santa Monica, CA)

1995 Art in Embassies Program, US Department of State

1994 First Street Gallery (NYC)

1992 First Street Gallery (NYC) and Books Inc (NYC)

1991 First Street Gallery (NYC)

1985 Munson-Williams Proctor Institute, Utica, (NY)

1982 Imperial Gallery (NYC)

1980 First Street Gallery (NYC)

1978 First Street Gallery (NYC)

1970-1978 Group Shows:

Cork Gallery (NYC)

Bone Hollow Arts (Accord, NY)

Marvin Gardens (NYC)

The Hudson Guild (NYC)
Interfaith Church (NYC)

Broome Street Gallery (NYC)

1966 Granite Gallery, NYC

1959 Forsythe Gallery, Ann Arbor, MI
1956 Polari Gallery, Woodstock, NY