Perhaps no artist today has been more preoccupied with his own image as has Arneson. The self-portraits reveal the artist in various attitudes, poses and disguises: he sneers, whistles, eats, laughs and picks his nose; he depicts himself being splattered with mud, being murdered, and crazed; at times he is a swimmer or a chef or an old time airplane pilot or Santa Claus, or as a clown.
Arneson was born in 1930 in Benicia, California about 25 miles northest of San Francisco. Stongly influenced by the pioneering work of California ceramist Peter Voulkos, he attended various schools in the Bay area and earned a Master of Fine Arts degree at Mills College in Oakland. He eventually obtained a position at the Univerdsity of California at Davis in 1962 and was appoinbted Professor of Art there in 1973.
Source: Bulletin, July-August, 1980.
Exhibition History"MCM - Y2K: A CENTURY OF ART ON PAPER," Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, Iowa, Dec. 11, 1999 - Feb. 13, 2000
"Styles of the Times: The 1970s," Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, Iowa, July 3 - August 30, 1998
"Commitment, Community and Controversy: The Des Moines Art Center Collections," Des Moines Art Center, January 24, 1998 - May 10, 1998
"Robert Arneson: Self-Reflections," San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, Feb. 14 - May 3, 1997
"Diversity of Line: Selection From the Permanent Collection," Des Moines Art Center, Nov. 16, 1990 - April 7, 1991
"Director's Choice," thirty-four works of art purchased with the Director's Discretionary Fund, 1973-1982, Des Moines Art Center, Sept. 13 - Nov. 13, 1983
"Inside Self, Someone Else," Dayton Art Institute, Ohio, Mar. 1 - May 29, 1983
"Center Ring: The Artist - Two Centuries of Circus Art," Milwaukee Art Museum, May 7 - June 28, 1981, (circulated to: Columbus Museum of Art, Aug. 30 - Oct. 11, 1981; New York State Museum, Albany, Dec. 11, 1981 - Mar. 7, 1982; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Apr. 24 - June 6, 1982)
"Heroes and Clowns," Allan Frumkin Gallery, N.Y., May 5 - June 8, 1979
"Word as Image: American Art 1960 - 1990", Milwaukee Art Museum, Wisconsin, June 15 - August 26, 1990, Oklahoma City art Museum, November 17 - February 2, 1991, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, February 23 - May 12, 1991
Published ReferencesDES MOINES ART CENTER: SELECTED PAINTINGS, SCULPTURES AND WORKS ON PAPER, a catalog of selections from the permanent collection published in 1985, cat. ref. p.24, ill. p.23, pl. no.6
"Robert Arneson: Self-Reflections," exhibition catalogue, ed. Fronia Simpson, San Francisco Museum of Art, 1997, color repr. pl. 6
"Gallery Guide" Des Moines Art Center, November 1990
"Director's Choice," Thirty-four works of art purchased with the Director's Discretionary Fund, 1973-1982 - A Gift to the Des Moines Art Center from the Gardner and Florence Call Cowles Foundation, Des Moines Art Center, 1983, b/w cat. ill.
DMAC Bulletin, July - Aug. 1980 (cover ill.)
"Heroes and Clowns," Allan Frumkin Gallery, N. Y., 1979, cat. ill. p.12
"Center Ring: The Artist - Two Centuries of Circus Art," Milwaukee Art Museum, 1981, cat. no. 4, ill. p. 57, ref. pp. 50 & 53
"Inside Self, Someone Else," Dayton Art Institute, Ohio, 1983, cat. no. 9
Sheet (/image): 41 1/4 × 29 3/4 in. (104.8 × 75.6 cm)
