Robert Arneson Biography Essay
Robert Arneson Robert Arneson was born in 1930 in the town of Benicia, California. Growing up, Robert’s father would encourage him to draw constantly. Robert would get most of his inspiration at this age from all the comics his father would read him. Robert would imagine himself in various hero-like roles in his drawings and even at this young age he was able to put together well thought out stories with his drawings. He continued to gain experience with drawing and was on the role to becoming a professional cartoonist by doing small cartoons for the sports section of the local weekly newspaper. After graduating high school he attended the College of Marin in Kentfield where he continued to produce cartoons for the newspaper. Here at the College of Marin he was finally introduced to his first ceramics class. He had never done anything with ceramics beforehand and as a result he received a low D grade. Lucky for him his professors enjoyed his talent with making cartoons and sent portfolios of his work to the San Francisco Art Institute and the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland.
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Robert Arneson was accepted to go to Arts and Crafts in Oakland to go for a career in commercial art.
He didn’t think he was good enough for the college so after just one semester he left but ended up returning in the spring of 1952 and graduated 2 years later with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He got a job at a high school where he would be expected to teach a wide variety of arts including ceramics which was his weakest area of training. He took a second class to develop more skill as a potter but that too seemed too tough for him and it ended up being the second time he was unsuccessful. It wasn’t until his second year, spring of 1956, as a teacher that he started enjoying ceramics and that June he entered summer school at San Jose College for ceramics. He didn’t believe they taught him much that summer so the next summer he returned to Arts and Crafts in
Oakland.
In 1957 Robert Arneson decided to put all his focus on ceramics and started learning every aspect of ceramics that he could from the Ceramics Monthly magazines. He was starting to become inspired by Peter Voulkos and his different styles of sculpting. Robert was intimidated by how well Voulkos was and he wanted to strive to be as good or better than him so he went back to school at Mills College in Oakland Hills. Here he developed his skills fast and became an amazing sculptor. He returned to his job back at the high school where he continued to observe Voulkos work. Robert started to break away from his mentality of making usable pottery to a more rustic look at ceramics making more non-functional works.
Roberts first important work of art came in 1961 with a clay bottle and bottle cap made at a state fair called No Deposit, No return. This work was considered to be humorous and started him on the road to many more famous works revolving around the humorous thought. He didn’t come across many important works like the first until the summer of 1963 though, where he was at an exhibition with his idols and wanted to prove that he was just as good as them and with that he decided to sculpt a toilet called Funk John. This is Robert’s first controversial sculpture. In fact one his idols told him he had to remove the sculpture from the exhibition because of it and this pleased Robert because he finally was making a name for himself. After this exhibition he continued making these controversial sculptures and became known for mocking traditional ceramics.
Later in life he would find inspiration from various things. His most famous works were inspired by his own childhood home, the nuclear battle, and his own image. He came up with a series called the Alice series which was a bunch of sculptures involving his childhood home. He made plates and cups involving his house on Alice Street to even a large eight foot by eight foot model of his home. Robert then started to make humorous sculptures of himself in the oddest situations and forms. It wasn’t until after being diagnosed with cancer in 1975 that he would come up with a new series of work that went together. This series is known as the nuclear series which was inspired by the nuclear powered countries fighting over bombing each other. He worked on this series while fighting a battle with cancer but still produced a lot of great work. Before he died in 1992 he was working on a bunch of humorous heads he would call egg heads and they would be the last works he ever would work on.
Works Cited
"The Art of Robert Arneson." The Art of Robert Arneson. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Dec. 2013.
Benezra, Neal David, and Robert Arneson. Robert Arneson: A Retrospective. Des Moines, IA: Des Moines Art Center, 1985. Print.
Robert Arneson was accepted to go to Arts and Crafts in Oakland to go for a career in commercial art.
He didn’t think he was good enough for the college so after just one semester he left but ended up returning in the spring of 1952 and graduated 2 years later with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He got a job at a high school where he would be expected to teach a wide variety of arts including ceramics which was his weakest area of training. He took a second class to develop more skill as a potter but that too seemed too tough for him and it ended up being the second time he was unsuccessful. It wasn’t until his second year, spring of 1956, as a teacher that he started enjoying ceramics and that June he entered summer school at San Jose College for ceramics. He didn’t believe they taught him much that summer so the next summer he returned to Arts and Crafts in
Oakland.
In 1957 Robert Arneson decided to put all his focus on ceramics and started learning every aspect of ceramics that he could from the Ceramics Monthly magazines. He was starting to become inspired by Peter Voulkos and his different styles of sculpting. Robert was intimidated by how well Voulkos was and he wanted to strive to be as good or better than him so he went back to school at Mills College in Oakland Hills. Here he developed his skills fast and became an amazing sculptor. He returned to his job back at the high school where he continued to observe Voulkos work. Robert started to break away from his mentality of making usable pottery to a more rustic look at ceramics making more non-functional works.
Roberts first important work of art came in 1961 with a clay bottle and bottle cap made at a state fair called No Deposit, No return. This work was considered to be humorous and started him on the road to many more famous works revolving around the humorous thought. He didn’t come across many important works like the first until the summer of 1963 though, where he was at an exhibition with his idols and wanted to prove that he was just as good as them and with that he decided to sculpt a toilet called Funk John. This is Robert’s first controversial sculpture. In fact one his idols told him he had to remove the sculpture from the exhibition because of it and this pleased Robert because he finally was making a name for himself. After this exhibition he continued making these controversial sculptures and became known for mocking traditional ceramics.
Later in life he would find inspiration from various things. His most famous works were inspired by his own childhood home, the nuclear battle, and his own image. He came up with a series called the Alice series which was a bunch of sculptures involving his childhood home. He made plates and cups involving his house on Alice Street to even a large eight foot by eight foot model of his home. Robert then started to make humorous sculptures of himself in the oddest situations and forms. It wasn’t until after being diagnosed with cancer in 1975 that he would come up with a new series of work that went together. This series is known as the nuclear series which was inspired by the nuclear powered countries fighting over bombing each other. He worked on this series while fighting a battle with cancer but still produced a lot of great work. Before he died in 1992 he was working on a bunch of humorous heads he would call egg heads and they would be the last works he ever would work on.
Works Cited
"The Art of Robert Arneson." The Art of Robert Arneson. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Dec. 2013.
Benezra, Neal David, and Robert Arneson. Robert Arneson: A Retrospective. Des Moines, IA: Des Moines Art Center, 1985. Print.