Best Egghead: Bookhead

 The Bookhead remains a quirky emblem of the Davis Funk Art Movement 

By SONJA WOOLEY — city@theaggie.org

The library Bookhead has once again been voted “Best Egghead” at UC Davis, maintaining its distinguished position among other works of public art in the city. 

The iconic egghead statues were among the final art pieces made by Davis sculptor Robert Arneson before his death in 1992. Arneson, who taught at the UC Davis Art Department for nearly 30 years, is considered the originator of the ceramic Funk Art Movement and is known for elevating ceramics to an art form worthy of serious consideration.

 Funk Art emerged from the beat generation of the 1960s and 1970s in the San Francisco Bay Area and Davis, Calif., as a response to and rejection of the New York Minimalist Art Movement. Funk Art tends to be playful, colorful and bizarre; sometimes purposely ugly and, for lack of a better word, funky. Many pieces from the Funk Art Movement are currently on display at the John Natsoulas Gallery in Davis. 

The Eggheads are particularly tongue-in-cheek, named after the epithet used to describe overly-intellectual academics who may be a bit out of touch with the outside world. Bookhead, placed conspicuously in front of the UC Davis Library with his nose buried dramatically inside a book, is the most obvious example of this joke, and perhaps this is why he has remained so popular among members of the student body. 

Seona Sherman, a fourth-year English major, expressed her enjoyment of the Eggheads.

“[The other Eggheads] are just not as fun as this guy,” Sherman said. “Cause he’s a book. Is that not college? Is that not the epitome of the college experience? When I first toured [Davis], that was the first egghead I saw and I actually took a selfie with it. I was just so enraptured by his face and lack of it.” 

It was Arneson’s intention that the Egghead statues remain at eye level to students, instead of on a pedestal like traditional sculptures, so that students could interact with them. 

Laila Penny, a fourth-year art history major and UC Davis tour guide, has incorporated the Bookhead into her tours. 

“Sometimes on the group tours with high schoolers and middle schoolers, I’ll be like ‘A lot of students will rub the top of its head for good luck on exams, so if you want to try that you can,’” Penny said. “But I think it’s pretty great. I took my senior photos on it, 10 out of 10.” 

The Bookhead remains an iconic fixture on the UC Davis campus. It’s a comforting sight when rushing into the library to finish another assignment, because whatever academic woes you might find yourself in, it seems like the Bookhead might have it worse. 

Written By: Sonja Wooley — city@theaggie.org