Robert Arneson (1930-1992) was born in Benicia, California. He graduated from Benicia High School and spent much of his early life as a cartoonist for a local paper. He studied at California College of the Arts in Oakland, California for his BFA and went on to receive a MFA from Mills College in 1958. In the early 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, political and social statements. The new movement was dubbed as Funk Art, and Arneson is considered the father of the ceramic Funk movement.
Robert Arneson (1930-1992) was born in Benicia, California. He graduated from Benicia High School and spent much of his early life as a cartoonist for a local paper. He studied at California College of the Arts in Oakland, California for his BFA and went on to receive a MFA from Mills College in 1958. In the early 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, political and social statements. The new movement was dubbed as Funk Art, and Arneson is considered the father of the ceramic Funk movement.
