Controversial George Moscone sculpture by Robert Arneson at SFMOMA
It is interesting this isn't included in the wall description (though there is a video www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpkocJ5kbEY ):
Then-Mayor Dianne Feinstein directed the Arts Commission, which had commissioned the piece and paid Arneson half of the $37,000 fee, to reject it unless he agreed to change the pedestal.
In 2000, now-Sen. Feinstein told Chronicle staff writer Mike Weiss that because of the pain and polarization in the city after the Jonestown massacre, the assassinations and the White Night riots, "I did not feel it was appropriate public art at the time. And I felt and feel very strongly about Gina (Moscone) and the family and what they had gone through."
Arneson, who was known for his irreverence and comic bite and obviously wasn't going to cast a heroic bronze, refused to alter the piece and returned the fee. San Francisco art dealer Foster Goldstrom snapped up the sculpture for $50,000.
www.sfgate.com/art/article/SFMOMA-to-display-divisive-Geo...
blog.seattlepi.com/art/2008/12/15/robert-arenson-san-fran...
sfciviccenter.blogspot.com/2012/06/robert-arneson-and-geo...
www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Moscone-s-first-bust-cause...
Robert Arneson; Sculptor of Controversial Moscone Work dies
articles.latimes.com/1992-11-04/news/mn-1268_1_robert-arn...
www.sfmoma.org/explore/multimedia/interactive_features/5
eggheads.ucdavis.edu/arneson.html
www.verisimilitudo.com/arneson/
www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interv...
Controversial George Moscone sculpture by Robert Arneson at SFMOMA
It is interesting this isn't included in the wall description (though there is a video www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpkocJ5kbEY ):
Then-Mayor Dianne Feinstein directed the Arts Commission, which had commissioned the piece and paid Arneson half of the $37,000 fee, to reject it unless he agreed to change the pedestal.
In 2000, now-Sen. Feinstein told Chronicle staff writer Mike Weiss that because of the pain and polarization in the city after the Jonestown massacre, the assassinations and the White Night riots, "I did not feel it was appropriate public art at the time. And I felt and feel very strongly about Gina (Moscone) and the family and what they had gone through."
Arneson, who was known for his irreverence and comic bite and obviously wasn't going to cast a heroic bronze, refused to alter the piece and returned the fee. San Francisco art dealer Foster Goldstrom snapped up the sculpture for $50,000.
www.sfgate.com/art/article/SFMOMA-to-display-divisive-Geo...
blog.seattlepi.com/art/2008/12/15/robert-arenson-san-fran...
sfciviccenter.blogspot.com/2012/06/robert-arneson-and-geo...
www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Moscone-s-first-bust-cause...
Robert Arneson; Sculptor of Controversial Moscone Work dies
articles.latimes.com/1992-11-04/news/mn-1268_1_robert-arn...
www.sfmoma.org/explore/multimedia/interactive_features/5
eggheads.ucdavis.edu/arneson.html
www.verisimilitudo.com/arneson/
www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interv...