Holy Cross' Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery Presents "Big Idea: The Maquettes of Robert Arneson"

WORCESTER, Mass. – The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery at the College of the Holy Cross presents Big Idea: The Maquettes of Robert Arneson from Sunday, October 26 through Friday, December 19, 2003. California-based artist Robert Arneson (1930-1992) produced a body of work primarily in ceramics, but also in bronze sculpture and drawing. He is widely known for his monumental self-portraits in clay that use both painting and sculpture, and focus on personal imagery, ranging from self-parody to his personal struggle with cancer.

Curated by Signe Mayfield, curator for the Palo Alto Art Center in California, Big Idea: The Maquettes of Robert Arneson features 80 Arneson maquettes (1964 – 92), several notebook sketches, two full-scale bronze sculptures, six works on paper, and related photo documentation.

The exhibition explores an aspect of the creative process that Arneson employed as a studio practice, namely the clay "sketches" which trace his realization of ideas in clay. The first of its kind ever assembled, this exhibition explores how the artist worked and developed ideas through his small scale maquettes (preliminary models) and drawings which were, in turn, fully realized by the artist into monumental ceramic sculptures. It is also the first exhibition to draw from the artist's collection of 109 maquettes in terra cotta and glazed ceramics, which he left in his estate.

Arneson consciously set out to bend the rules of a media (ceramics) that was technically challenging yet considered, in America, a "low art" material, and in doing so poked fun at art world assumptions of formalist theory and easy critical classification.

Several afternoon lectures accompany this exhibition. The schedule of events follows:

* Sunday, Oct. 26, 2 – 3 p.m. (Rehm Library, Smith Hall) Afternoon lecture: Robert Arneson and the Value of the Vernacular by Leo Mazow, Ph.D., Curator of American Art, Palmer Museum of Art, Pennsylvania State University. Followed by a reception at the Cantor Gallery from 3 - 5 p.m.

* Monday, Oct. 27, 5 - 7 p.m. (O'Kane Hall 495) Talk: Robert Arneson: A Sculptor's Perspective, by Joseph Mannino, Carnegie Mellon University. Mannino's talk will be followed by a reception at the Cantor Gallery from 6 – 7 p.m.

* Monday, Nov. 10, 5 – 6 p.m. (O'Kane Hall 495) Guest curator talk: by Signe Mayfield, Palo Alto Art Center, Calif.

* Tuesday, Nov. 4 and Thursday, Nov. 20, 12 p.m. (Cantor Art Gallery) Talks held in conjunction with the exhibit: Presented by Roger Hankins, director, Cantor Art Gallery. Hankins studied under Robert Arneson at the University of California, Davis and spent two years working with Arneson under a National Endowment for the Arts Apprenticeship Grant.

The exhibition and accompanying catalogue, Big Idea: The Maquettes of Robert Arneson, are funded in part by grants from the Palo Alto Art Center Foundation; The Christensen Fund, Palo Alto; The Association of Ceramic and Glass Artists, Calif.; California Arts Council, a state agency; the Arts Council Silicon Valley; an anonymous donor in honor of the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.; John T. Kotelly; the Morgan Flagg Family Foundation; Dominic and Margaret Di Mare, Forrest L. Merrill, and private contributions.

The hours for the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery are Monday–Friday, 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.; Saturdays, 2 p.m. – 5 p.m. Located in O'Kane Hall, 1st Floor, College of the Holy Cross, 1 College Street, Worcester, Mass., 01610. The gallery will be closed from November 26 – 29 for the Thanksgiving holiday. Admission to the gallery is free and open to the public.

For additional information please contact the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery at 508-793-3356 or visit the Gallery's web site at: www.holycross.edu/departments/cantor/website/index.html