Me and Myself

Photo: Scott Leen

Me and Myself

1991

Robert Arneson

American, 1930-1992

Arneson's self-portraits mix irreverence, informality, and humor. From a distance this head looks suspicously like a straightforward echo of a classical bronze, complete with empty eye sockets. Close inspection reveals that Arneson has "defaced" it with such punning phrases as "It is eye; I am it; it is me; find this mind of mine." The wordplay continues on the pedestal, which is decorated with a daunting alphabetical list of "self" adjectives, beginning with "self-abased." "Me & My Self" is impressed word by word on the four sides of the base.

Bronze
49 x 21 x 22 in. (124.46 x 53.34 x 55.88 cm)
Thickness: 3/16 in.
194 lb 16. oz (88.45 kg)
Gift of the artist and Rena Bransten in memory of Howard Kottler
91.248
Photo: Scott Leen
location
Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Collection Highlights: 1945 To The Present, September 12, 1996 - June 1, 1997.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Poke in the Eye: Art of the West Coast Counterculture, June 21 - September 2, 2024.

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

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