Artist

Robert Arneson

born Benicia, CA 1930-died Benicia, CA 1992
Media - portrait_image_113314.jpg - 89885
© 1982 Mimi Jacobs; Courtesy Mimi Jacobs Papers, Archives of American Art.
Also known as
  • Robert Carston Arneson
  • Robert C. Arneson
Born
Benicia, California, United States
Died
Benicia, California, United States
Biography

Feeling Pushed captures Robert Arneson at an especially stressful moment in his life. Two years earlier, he had been diagnosed with cancer, possibly caused by the chemicals contained in his art materials. He underwent surgery and was required to return to the hospital numerous times. Despite this serious threat to his health, Arneson injects humor into his self-portrait, even vulgarity. His face seems to be pushed up against a piece of transparent glass that flattens his nose into a piggish snout, while his wild hair and wrinkled features expresss the tension and anxiety that characterize his state of mind. The artist appears like a specimen prepared for a microscopic examination. Areneson frequently turned to self-portraiture as a means to examine his relationship with the world, expressing serious thought and difficult emotional content through the filter of a humorous mask.

Joann Moser Graphic Masters: Highlights from the Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington, D.C. : Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2003)

Works by this artist (4 items)

John Wilde, Wildeview, 1985, lithograph on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Schmidt-Bingham Gallery, 1996.62, © 1985, John Wilde
Wildeview
Date1985
lithograph on paper
Not on view
John Wilde, 75 in 150 from the Wisconsin Sesquicentennial Portfolio, 2001, aquatint and dry-point with select hand-coloring on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Janet Ann Bond Sutter and Thomas Henry Sutter, 2008.10.1.14, © 2001, Andrew G. Balkin and Renee E.K. Balkin
75 in 150 from the Wisconsin Sesquicentennial Portfolio
Date2001
aquatint and dry-point with select hand-coloring on paper
Not on view
John Wilde, Hats #2, 1988, silverpoint on prepared paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase made possible by Elizabeth Stevens and Mrs. E. N. Vanderpoel, 1996.45
Hats #2
Date1988
silverpoint on prepared paper
Not on view

Exhibitions

Media - 1999.80 - SAAM-1999.80_1 - 52092
Graphic Masters III: Highlights from the Smithsonian American Art Museum
January 15, 2010August 7, 2010
Graphic Masters III: Highlights from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the third in a series of special installations, celebrates the extraordinary variety and accomplishment of American artists' works on paper.