Breast+Trophy

Date: 1964
 * [[image:http://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=http://americanart.si.edu/images/1990/1990.74_2a.jpg&max=460 width="223" height="277" link="@http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=31948"]] || Title: **Breast Trophy**

Artist: **Robert Arneson** Born: Benicia, California 1930 Died: Benicia, California 1992

Medium: glazed stoneware Dimensions: 19 3/4 x 11 3/4 x 8 in. (50.2 x 29.9 x 20.4 cm.) Smithsonian American Art Museum Museum purchase made possible by the Smithsonian Institution Collections Acquisition Program

Accession: 1990.74 || “Busts are always so proper. . . too idealized, just so dull looking. I want [the bust]. . . to get you right back and make you stay your distance.” - [Robert Arneson, The Oakland Museum, January/February, 1987]

That sagging female breasts can be called a trophy contradicts the idea of commemorative trophies. Robert Arneson's observation of human behavior and American cultural mores that men and women have an obsession with female breaasts inspired this trophy and its pithy social comment. The artist also brings to our attention the discomforting truth that women are often turned into objects. The most evident example of this cultural phenomenon is the phrase "trophy wife." The titel Breast Trophy transforms the piece into a witty visual pun.
 * About the Artwork (Official Text): **

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.
 * Biographical Information: **

Arneson was greatly influenced by the expressionist work of fellow Californian Peter Voulkos, who had studied Pablo Picasso's works in clay. This influence stimulated Arneson to be more adventurous and to break through previously established sculptural boundaries. Arneson rejected the idea that ceramic artists produce only utilitarian or decorative items. He began creating non-functional clay pieces, contradicting the more formal traditions previously associated with this medium. He created a number of self-portraits using photographs, mirrors, and drawings; each one seemed to reveal a new identity. Although by definition self-referential, the ironic and humorous self-portraits were used as vehicles to present universal concepts and feelings. Arneson was part of the dynamic group of irreverent California Pop artists whose work has come to be known as "Funk Art." After the artist became ill with liver cancer in the early 1980s, his work became progressively more somber in tone. Arneson's own confrontation with death made him aware of society's flirtation with mass destruction.

Female figure. Icon of anti-elitist Funk. Intentionally outrageous in its subject matter and technique. Taught at U Cal Davis. In mid to late 60’s, helped transform representational ceramic sculpture into an iconoclastic and highly irreverent form of expression. - [Source: Notes from Curator-led Walk-Throughs in the Gallery and various Catalogs]



Artist Biography SAAM Collections Page
 * Links: **