Installation view of Funk You Too! Humor and Irreverence in Ceramic Sculpture, Museum of Arts and Design, New York, 2023.
Major sculptures by Robert Arneson are currently on view in Funk You Too! Humor and Irreverence in Ceramic Sculpture at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York.
Funk You Too! brings together over 50 artworks by 26 artists that highlight clay as a compelling tool of critique and satire. With works dating from the 1960s through the present day, pieces by artists from the original Funk Art generation are placed next to work by contemporary artists who are expanding on Funk’s legacy of humor, subversion and expressive figuration. Funk ceramics first emerged on the West Coast in the 1960s, with work by Robert Arneson and his contemporaries reflecting their anti-establishment viewpoint toward expectations of “good art.” Arneson in particular epitomized this mindset, his subversive tendencies extending to an engagement with more serious subject matter such as social and political issues, an example that carries through to the work of a new generation of artists.
The exhibition will be on view through August 27, 2023.