While playing around in a demonstration booth at the California State Fair, Robert Arneson threw a clay beer bottle form, capped it, and emblazoned it with the slogan “no deposit, no return.” This willfully nonfunctionalist gesture caused a rift with his former teacher the formalist potter Antonio Prieto, but it set the stage for the witty ceramic sculptures that became Arneson’s signature work.

(California Design, 1930–1965: "Living in a Modern Way," 2011-12)

• Koplos, Janet, and Bruce Metcalf. Makers: a History of American Studio Craft. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2010.
• Lynn, Martha Drexler. American Studio Ceramics: Innovation and Identity, 1940 to 1979. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2015.
• Lauria, Jo; Color and Fire -  Defining Moments in Studio Ceramics, 1950-2000; Los Angeles County Museum of Art,  Los Angeles, CA, 2000.
• Kaplan, Wendy, ed. California Design, 1930-1965: Living in a Modern Way. Los Angeles: Los  Angeles County Museum of Art; Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2011.
• Kaplan, Wendy, ed. Living in a Modern Way: California Design, 1930-1965.  Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2013. 

• California Design, 1930–1965: "Living in a Modern Way" Los Angeles, CA, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, October 1, 2011 - June 3, 2012
• California Design, 1930–1965: "Living in a Modern Way" Tokyo, Japan, The National Art Center, Tokyo, March 20, 2013 - June 3, 2013
• California Design, 1930–1965: "Living in a Modern Way" Auckland, New Zealand, Auckland Art Gallery, July 6, 2013 - September 29, 2013
• California Design, 1930–1965: "Living in a Modern Way" South Brisbane, Australia, Queensland Art Gallery, November 2, 2013 - February 9, 2014
• California Design, 1930–1965: "Living in a Modern Way" Salem, MA, Peabody Essex Museum, March 29, 2014 - July 6, 2014