Robert Arneson

American, 1930–1992

Robert Carston Arneson was an American sculptor and professor of ceramics in the Art department at University of California, Davis for nearly three decades.

As a child, Robert Arneson aspired to become a sports cartoonist, and when he was seventeen, contributed a weekly cartoon to the local newspaper. Arneson studied to become an art teacher and worked in watercolor until he discovered the ceramics of Peter Voulkos. Arneson began working in clay, making comic self-portraits in which he showed himself smoking a cigar, dressed as Santa Claus, or with his fingers up his nose; he also made portraits of friends, fellow artists, and politicians. In the 1960s and 1970s, Arneson was a leader of the funk art movement of Bay Area artists who focused on the absurdity of everyday objects. Many of his sculptures offer visual puns and sarcastic observations, and depict toasters, urinals, and bottles of soda. Late in his career, Arneson applied his dark humor and biting sarcasm to address political issues. With titles like Holy War Head and General Nuke, his sculptures of devastation and human carnage warn us about the consequences of nuclear war and the arms race.

Courtesy Smithsonian American Art Museum

Hulton Archive/Getty Images. Photograph by M.A. Majewski, courtesy of George Adams Gallery, New York.