By Keri Luiz
Assistant Editor

He was a favorite son of Benicia, and, late in life, a controversial figure.

“A Troublesome Subject: The Art of Robert Arneson” may be the most comprehensive book on the internationally known artist who was born, raised, and lived most of his life in Benicia.

Its author, Dr. Jonathan Fineberg, a professor emeritus of art history at the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign, will be at Arts Benicia on Saturday afternoon for a talk and book signing. He will later attend a reception at Bookshop Benicia.

“A Troublesome Subject” tells how Arneson, a high school art teacher, became an internationally known artist. Fineberg chronicles Arneson’s early life and the formation of his personal style.

The artist, a cartoonist for this newspaper from 1949-52 who was perhaps most famous for his controversial bust of slain San Francisco Mayor George Moscone, died in 1992.

Fineberg said by email this week he heard Arneson give a lecture on his work around 1980. “But I had already been following his work in the galleries in New York for some time.

“From the moment I first saw Arneson’s work I knew it was really important, historically important work that changed the discourse on art, but like most truly great artists he articulated something in his work that the rest of us didn’t have words to talk about,” he said.

The book itself was many years in the making. “It took me a very long time to wrestle that problem to the ground, 30 years I think, but when I finally got it, then the whole book fell into place quickly for me. It’s a much better book than what I could have written if I had done it 20 or 30 years ago.”

Sandra Shannonhouse, who was with Arneson for more than 22 years, and married to him for 19, said over the years she and Arneson got to know Fineberg very well.

“Before Bob got sick, they had talked about it. Jonathan was writing a book about Bob, that was clear.”

“His (Fineberg’s) real interest as an historian is extraordinary, and he has such a background. He sees things in such a broad way,” said Shannonhouse, who helped fact check the book and collect and organize the photographs used in it. “It’s not such art speak.”

Shannonhouse said Fineberg is one of the top scholars in America today. “This last year he gave four very important lectures that are going to be published, about the mind and the creative process, and what it really is to be creative,” she said.

“We’re just honored that he’s done this,” she said. “I’m so happy with (the book).”

For the last couple years, before the book went to press, Shannonhouse said, she had some difficulty coming to terms with it.

“There were times when I felt I was reliving my life with Bob Arneson, and I really did,” she said. “It was a big process.”

“He was a wonderful man.”

Fineberg stressed the historical importance of Arneson’s work, and how he has been underestimated by art teachers and historians.

“According to my daughter, young people are picking up that book at her house, not knowing her father wrote it, and going ‘Wow, the connection to the body, the depth of thought!’ Art historians have not grasped his importance and haven’t taught his work comprehensively enough in art history classes till now, so he is just about to have a big rediscovery among the young,” he said.

If you go:
Jonathan Fineberg will speak and sign copies of “A Troublesome Subject” at Arts Benicia, 991 Tyler St., #114, Saturday from 2-3:30 p.m. A reception will be at Bookshop Benicia, 636 First St., from 4-5 p.m.