Robert Indiana

Morgan Art Foundation, Geneva (acquired directly from the artist)
Private Collection

 

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate. The catalogue illustration fails to fully convey the three dimensionality of the work, apparent in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition.
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"In a sense, I got down to the subject matter of my work... the subject is defined by its expression in the work itself... LOVE is purely a skeleton of all that work was meant in all the erotic and religious aspect of the theme, and to bring it down to the actual structure of the calligraphy [is to reduce it] to the bare bones" the artist cited in: T. Brakeley, Robert Indiana, New York 1990, p.166

Like Andy Warhol's soup cans and Jasper John's flags, Robert Indiana's LOVE sculpture has become one of the most iconic images in American art. Part of the artist's large body of work that is focused around the single yet profound and multifaceted word, the sculpture brings to fruition the architectural weight of the compositions form.  Compactly stacked in monosyllabic units, the letters commit to the square format, the O tilting to the right so as to fill its allotted space.  The present work represents the artist's ability to create something of both conceptual and physical importance while maintaining tangibility through its volumetric and linguistic simplicity, and its relation to the human scale.

Throughout his career, Indiana has been fascinated by the importance of the sign within American history, and its ability to encapsulate intangible meanings, desires, and emotions through language reduced to the subtle placement of minimal but straightforward and accessible words.  Realizing the potential of language in graphic art, Indiana sought to emulate this simplicity of transmission within his own work, condensing his personal experiences into contemporary signage.  LOVE was the first time that the artist edited the subject of his art to a single word, however, as in his other work the immediacy and directness of his commanding messages do not preclude a wealth of possible meanings and connotations; their simplicity belies that they are never neutral, nor empty. 

Originally exhibited in 1966, the LOVE image existed initially as a painted two-dimensional form, the flat red letters placed within a ground of blue and green.  Serving an important purpose, the pigment used intensely explored the optical effects of colour resulting in the figure and the ground of the LOVE paintings becoming equivalents.  Reconstituting the letters in three dimensions, Indiana remained focused on the formal construction of the image, of which colour is an intrinsic part. Indiana's interest in the effect of colour over a work as a whole places him in legion with the Op artists, such as his great friend and mentor Ellsworth Kelly, in addition to the more immediately visible connection to the Pop Artists of his time.  In the present work, the eye is immediately attracted to the bold colours, the juxtaposition of the violet and the red creating disjunctive contours that allow entry beyond the initial surface dimension.