Characterization: Robert Arneson's Overcooked

Lesson Procedure:
1) Begin the lesson with a class discussion on art. Ask the students the following questions:
a. Do you see any art in your environment? If so what and where?
b. Have you ever created any artwork yourself? How did that feel?
c. What reasons might an artist have for creating art?
d. Why do you think that every society, even if they didn’t have written language, has art in some form?
e. Why do societies/cultures create art?

2) Focused Viewing Questions: Show the students the first focus artwork, Overcooked. Have the students answer the following questions (Note: students can answer either orally or in written form):
a. What is the artist telling you about this person?
b. How does he feel? How can you tell?
c. What is the body language in the sculpture?
d. Can you tell anything about the personality of the figure?
e. What gives clues to what the artist is saying about the sculpture?
f. Would you feel differently about the sculpture if it was made out of some other material (i.e.: wood, bronze, paper)?
3) Hand out to each student the write up for the artwork. Either whole class or in groups have the students read the information, writing one piece of information from each paragraph. Conduct a whole class discussion on the artworks. Ask the students if their opinion of the pieces has changed because of the information. Ask why or why not.
4) Tell the students that they will be making their own sculpture. To prepare them for this have the students discuss the form of Overcooked. Begin by having the students look at lines. Remind the students that horizontal lines indicate calmness or peacefulness, vertical lines indicate strength, and diagonal lines indicate movement. Have the students describe what types of shapes they see (oval, rectangle, triangle, square, and circle). Explain to the students that by looking closely at objects, any knowledge learned can be transferred to creating their own object.
5) Hand out a 12 inch by 12 inch piece of foil to each student. Allow time for students to experiment with the foil. Encourage students to discover as many ways as possible to manipulate the foil, without using any other materials.
6) Hand out two more pieces of 12 inch by 12 inch foil to each student. Tell the students to create a figure using the foil. Students can bend, tear, crumple, fold, etc. but may not use any other materials to create the figure. They do not have to use both pieces of foil, but students cannot use any more than the two pieces given. Student must create a figure; however, the figure does not have to be human.
7) Have the students create a character for their sculpture. Have students respond in writing to the following questions:
a. Who are they? Young? Old? Rich? Poor? Human? Non-human? Kind? Miserable? Joyful? Wise? Foolish?
b. What do they want?
c. Where are they?
8) Pair up the students with their foil sculptures. Student A goes first and poses his/her foil sculpture. Student B then poses his/her sculpture in response. Each student creates 3 poses/counter poses with their sculpture. Each pose needs to be consistent with the character just created.
9)  Have the students create a six line dialogue between their two foil sculptures based on the poses they just did. Each student is responsible for 3 lines of dialogue. Have student A begin; write down the first line (or two) of dialogue then give the paper to student B. Student B responds and passes the paper back to student A. Each student takes three turns. The dialogue needs to be consistent with the character created for the foil sculpture.
10) Have students volunteer to read their character description, and then read the dialogue. Have the students respond with appropriate feedback.
11) Ask the students to remember the class discussion at the beginning of the lesson. Ask if any of the students have changed their mind about art and the creation of art and have them explain their choice to the class.

Assessment: Students will create a foil sculpture demonstrating their understanding of form. Students will create a character based on their foil sculpture and demonstrate an understanding of how to explain a created character. Pairs of students will create a dialogue between two foil sculptures and perform the dialogue, demonstrating their understanding of how to create and perform dialogue, staying consistent with the character they created.

About the Artist

Born in Benicia, California, Robert Arneson attended the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland where he earned his B.A. in art education in 1954. He briefly taught high school in the Bay Area which led to an interest in ceramics and resulted in his enrollment at Mills College in Oakland. There he studied with ceramist Antonio Prieto, completing his M.F.A in 1958. Arneson’s earliest works were decorative and functional, but his introduction to the expressionist work of Peter Voulkos inspired him to explore clay as a sculptural medium. In 1961, a simple act of self-amusement changed the direction of his career when he created No Deposit, No Return—a small soda bottle form that particularly offended ceramists like Prieto. Now Arneson created sculptures based primarily on wordplay that amused, offended or shocked viewers with humor and irreverence. As a teacher at the University of California, Davis, Arneson influenced a generation of young ceramists.

About the Artwork

In the early 1970s, Arneson began to explore autobiographical themes and worked on a series of monumental self-portraits. Wordplay and humor were yet important in these caricatures of the artist in which he portrayed himself with preposterous expressions in dramatic or comic psychological states. References to Arneson as an artist abound in these pieces as seen in the little kiln visible at the back of this piece and by the kiln bricks upon which the bust rests. Arneson depicted himself as a cook in several of these portraits and in so doing humorously compares the work of firing sculptures to confectionary baking. At the same time, with the title Overcooked he makes a pun on terminology used to describe someone who has over-indulged in recreational drugs.

Related Artwork

Robert Carston Arneson (American, 1930-1992)

Overcooked, 1973

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