Robert Carston Arneson (September 4, 1930 – November 2, 1992) was an American sculpture and professor of Ceramic art in the Art department at University of California, Davis for nearly three decades.[ California Death Records (The California Department of Health Services) [1] ]
Early life and education
Robert Carston Arneson was born on September 4, 1930, in Benicia, California. He graduated from Benicia High School and spent much of his early life as a cartoonist for a local paper. Arneson studied at California College of the Arts in Oakland, California, for his BFA degree and went on to receive an MFA from
Mills College in Oakland, California, in 1958.
At Mills College he studied under Antonio Prieto.
Career
During the start of the 1960s, Arneson and several other
California artists began to abandon the traditional manufacture of functional ceramic objects and instead began to make nonfunctional sculptures that made confrontational statements. The new movement was dubbed
Funk art, and Arneson is considered the father of the ceramic
Funk art.
His body of work contains many self-portraits which have has been described as an "autobiography in clay"
Sintetos, Mike, Robert Arneson: Serious Ideas Behind that Humor, UC Davis website Doyen from 1972, in the collection of the Honolulu Museum of Art is an example of the artist's humorously caricatured self-portraits.
Even his large Eggheads sculptures bear a self-resemblance. Among the last works Arneson completed before his 1992 death, five Eggheads were installed on campus at UC Davis around 1994.
One of Arneson's most famous and controversial works is a bust of George Moscone, the mayor of San Francisco who was assassinated in 1978. Inscribed on the pedestal of the bust are words representing events in Moscone's life, including his assassination: the words "Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang",
Teaching career
Arneson's teaching career began soon after receiving his MFA degree, with a stint at Santa Rosa Junior College, in Santa Rosa, California (1958 to1959). This was followed by a position at Fremont High School (1959 to 1960) in Oakland, California, before advancing to teach design and crafts at
Mills College, also located in Oakland (1960 to 1962).
Arneson's next appointment in 1962 was at University of California, Davis, where his talents were recognized by Richard L. Nelson, who had founded the Art Department. It was during this period of the early 60s that Nelson was assembling a faculty that would come to be celebrated as one of the most prestigious in the nation. In addition to Arneson, Nelson had also selected Manuel Neri, Wayne Thiebaud and William T. Wiley, each of whom would go on to achieve international recognition. Initially hired to teach design classes (in the College of Agriculture),[ Biography] Since its founding, the UC Davis campus ceramics studio has been housed in a corrugated metal building known as TB-9,
Death and legacy
Arneson died on November 2, 1992, after a long battle with liver cancer.
He was survived by his wife, Sandra Shannonhouse, and his five children.
His home town of Benicia, California established a park in his memory, along the
Carquinez Strait.
Collections
Arneson's fame is far-reaching, and his works can be found in public and private collections around the world, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (Richmond, Virginia), the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Washington, DC), where his 1979 glazed ceramic "Elvis" bust is housed, since 1985,
Di rosa (Napa, California), the Honolulu Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City), the Museum of Contemporary Art (Kyoto, Japan), the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Racine Art Museum (Racine, Wisconsin), the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York City), the Birmingham Museum of Art, the UI Stanley Museum of Art and the US Embassy in Yerevan, Armenia. His creations are also at the Lowe Art Museum in Coral Gables, Florida.
The Nelson Gallery at UC Davis, where Arneson was a faculty member, owns 70 of the artist's works, including The Palace at 9am. The earthenware sculpture, a depiction of his former Davis residence, is considered among his most famous sculptures. Several of his etchings and lithographs are also on display in the library.
Personal life
Arneson's first marriage was to Jeanette Frank Jensen, from 1955 until 1972 and ended in divorce.
Together Arneson and Jensen had four sons.
His second wife was artist Sandra Lynne Shannonhouse,
Publications
Footnotes
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Arneson, Robert, Arneson and the Object, University Park, PA. Palmer Museum of Art, 2004
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Arneson, Robert and Jonathan Fineberg, Robert Arneson, Self-reflections, San Francisco, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1997
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Arneson, Robert and Helen Williams Drutt, Robert Arneson, Self-portraits, Philadelphia, Moore College of Art, 1979.
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Benezra, Neal, Robert Arneson, Seattle, University of Washington Press, 1986 .
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Benezra, Neal, Robert Arneson, a Retrospective, Des Moines, Iowa, Des Moines Art Center, 1985
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Faberman, Hilarie, Tenley C. Bick and Susan C. Cameron, Fired at Davis: figurative ceramic sculpture by Robert Arneson, visiting professors, and students at the University of California at Davis, Stanford, Calif., Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, 2005
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Fineberg, Jonathan, "A Troublesome Subject: The Art of Robert Arneson," Berkeley, University of California Press, 2013 .
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Levin, Elaine, The History of American Ceramics: From Pipkins and Bean Pots to Contemporary Forms, 1607 to the Present, New York, Harry N. Abrams, 1988, pp. 227–230.
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Nash, Steven A., Arneson and Politics, a commemorative exhibition, San Francisco, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1993
External links
