Robert Arneson

Robert Carston Arneson (September 4, 1930 – November 2, 1992) was an American sculptor and professor of ceramics in the Art department at University of California, Davis for nearly three decades.

One of Arneson's most famous and controversial works is a bust of George Moscone, the mayor of San Francisco who was assassinated in 1978.

[10] Arneson's next appointment in 1962 was at University of California, Davis, where his talents were recognized by Richard L. Nelson, who had founded the Art Department.

[citation needed] In addition to Arneson, Nelson had also selected Manuel Neri, Wayne Thiebaud and William T. Wiley, each of whom would go on to achieve international recognition.

Initially hired to teach design classes (in the College of Agriculture),[10] it was Arneson who established the ceramic sculpture program for the Art Department.

[11] Since its founding, the UC Davis campus ceramics studio has been housed in a corrugated metal building known as TB-9,[12] and it was here that Arneson held court for nearly three decades until his retirement in the summer of 1991.

The Nelson Gallery at UC Davis, where Arneson was a faculty member, owns 70 of the artist's works, including The Palace at 9am.