Robert Indiana

born 1928

Biography

Born in Indiana, US, Robert Indiana (born Robert Clark) is one of the most prolific American artists associated with the Pop Art movement. He graduated from Arsenal Technical High School, Indianapolis and later joined the pop art movement in New York City in 1954.

His first solo exhibition was in 1962 at Eleanor Ward's Stable Gallery in New York. Since then Indiana's work have been exhibited all over the world and are in the permanent collections in the most important modern art museums in the world.

Indiana's works are often bold images consisting of numbers, letters and/or words. His most famous and iconic works are known as the LOVE Series. A design originally created as a Christmas card design for the Museum of Modern Art in 1964, it became a regular feature on US postal stamps and many sculptures and screen prints were produced, the former being installed at locations worldwide. Indiana even created a Hebrew version of the sculpture, using the Hebrew translation of 'love', "Ahava", for the Israel Museum Art Garden in Jerusalem.

In 2008, Indiana produced another version of LOVE design, showcasing the word 'Hope' and donated all proceeds to Barak Obama's presidential campaign; the image has been used on all manner of campaign merchandise – t-shirts, bumper stickers, badges etc. During the course of his long career, Indiana has been a theatrical set and costume designer as well as an artist.

Images

The Figure Five 1963 Oil on canvas 152.4 x 127.3 cm © 2010 Morgan Art Foundation Ltd. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, DACS, London The depiction of artworks herein should not necessarily be considered an intimation of ownership

USA 666 1966 Oil on canvas 266.7 x 266.7 cm © 2010 Morgan Art Foundation Ltd. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, DACS, London The depiction of artworks herein should not necessarily be considered an intimation of ownership