Robert Arneson

American
(1930–1992)

Nose Brick
1978

Earthenware
4.5 x 9.5 x 2.75 in.
Gift of the Nora Eccles Treadwell Foundation
2021.26

With humor, a biting wit, and tongue-in-cheek satire, Robert Arneson expanded the possibilities of American sculptural ceramics. Nose Brick, a visual pun, combines the functionality of a clay brick with a deconstructed figural representation of the artist’s nose and mouth. Arneson is considered one of the founders of the ceramic Funk art movement, which represented a monumental shift in American ceramics away from the functional vessel tradition and toward experimental sculpture, often of the human figure. In Nose Brick, anonymous functionality is replaced by the ego of the artist.

Robert Arneson received both his BA in 1954 and MFA in 1958 from the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, California. He was trained by some of the most skilled potters in the San Francisco Bay Area, including Edith Heath, Antonio Prieto, Robert Arneson, and Viola Frey. He was hired by the University of California, Davis, to establish their ceramic sculpture program in 1962. Under Arneson’s leadership, Davis became an important center for ceramic sculpture in the latter half of the twentieth century.

Matthew Limb

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This object has the following keywords:

• brick - Clay or clay products formed into a rectangular block and hardened by drying in the sun or firing in a kiln.
• face
• facial hair
• mouth
• mustache
• nose

This object was included in the following exhibitions:

• Unearthed , 8/23/2022 - 5/14/2023

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