Images(3)

Pool with Splash

Date1977

Label TextRobert Arneson drew on a wide range of historic and contemporary sources for his critical evaluation of artistic themes and genres. Pool with Splash is a case in point. It references an iconic Los Angeles subject examined in Ed Ruscha's 1968 artist book, Nine Swimming Pools and Glass, but also David Hockney's paintings of California homes and pools (some with splash). The choice of working with glazed ceramics as a sculptural material on a large scale became Arneson's own comment on "high art"- an art world insider using what would have been considered and "outsider" material. This opened not only a host of creative opportunities to the artist but it allowed him to rebel and critique the stictures of Mordernist frameworks, and with it, the hierarchical distinction between art and craft.

Object number82.156

Photo CreditPhoto: Nathaniel Willson

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, American Sculpture: Three Decades, November 15, 1984 - January 27, 1985. Cover. Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Arneson and Colescott, March 8 - August 10, 2014. Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Poke in the Eye: Art of the West Coast Counterculture, June 21 - September 2, 2024.Published ReferencesClark, Gareth. A Century of Ceramics In The United States: 1878-1978. New York: E.P. Dutton, in association with the Everson Museum of Art, 1979. No. 258, p. 271, reproduced p. 22. University Fine Arts Gallery, Florida State University, Tallahassee, "California Clay", 1979, ill.

Credit LineGift of Manuel Neri

Dimensions18 1/2 x 145 x 116 in. (47 x 368.3 x 294.6 cm)

MediumCeramic with glaze