Robert Indiana

"Decoding Robert Indiana's work for a new generation, this revelatory book explores previously unknown autobiographical elements in the work of the Pop artist and printmaker. Famously proclaiming himself to be "an American painter of signs," Robert Indiana has created an enormous body of work, much of it boldly colored abstractions. In this incisive new examination of the artist, based on ongoing conversations with Indiana, art historian Martin Krause sifts through autobiographical clues within the artist's work and finds a wealth of affecting and affectionate references to Indiana's childhood, literary heroes, and the cultural icons of his generation. In addition, a penetrating essay by Pop art scholar John Wilmerding deconstructs Indiana's use of geometric shapes, making unexpected connections that enhance Krause's thesis. Accompanied by reproductions of more than 50 prints from the period 1960-2010--and focusing specifically on series such as Decade: Autoportraits, Vinalhaven Suite, and The Hartley Elegies as well as the "Love" and "Hope" images and studies of Marilyn Monroe, Picasso, and the Brooklyn Bridge--Krause's decryption of Indiana's visual language provides telling insight into the work of this quintessentially American artist"--

The author argues that Indiana's strident visual language emerges from his tendency to recast his life in story and verse, a fact that unlocks complex and secret tissues of figurative meaning within the deceptively simple canvases. By illuminating the enigmas in Indiana's word and image combinations, she helps to explain the longevity of LOVE and its influence on a later generation of artists."--BOOK JACKET.

Robert Indiana, famous as a pioneering Pop artist in the 1960s, and renowned for making his "LOVE" sculptures, paintings and posters so famous that the United States Postal Service put it on a stamp, is this year experiencing a monumental comeback in New York City with a new installation of colorful numbers along Park Avenue titled "One Through Zero" and simultaneous shows at C&M Arts and Paul Kasmin Gallery. This volume looks at Indiana's hugely influential early Pop Art work, but focuses on his more recent and extensive work with numbers. Each of his numbers represents a phase in life and each has its own color scheme; for example, "1" is red and green and symbolizes birth, and "6" is green and red and symbolizes the peak of life.

An insightful and long overdue reassessment of the full scope of the career of Robert Indiana, who combined Pop Art, hard-edged abstraction, and language-based conceptualism

"Robert Indiana's paintings are quintessential pop art. His fascination with letters and numbers, billboards, and other vernacular signage has resulted in some of the most iconic images in modern American art. Indiana's famous LOVE paintings and sculptures are perhaps his most well-known works. Now, in this long-awaited survey of Indiana's art and designs, three leading art historians examine the different periods of his life and oeuvre. The volume includes his pop culture roots--his early paintings of road signs, pinball machines, the "American Dream"--As well as his own writings and photographs. This important monograph assures Indiana's place in the art world alongside contemporaries Warhol, Lichtenstein, and Rosenquist."--Publisher's website.

Robert Indiana's works all speak to the vital forces that have shaped American culture in the last half of the 20th century. The American Dream is the cornerstone of Indiana's mature work. It was the theme of his first major painting, sold to the Museum of Modern Art in 1961, as well as an ongoing series. Indiana also created one of the most widely recognized works of art in the world, Love. Much of Indiana's important contribution to American art has been overshadowed by the proliferation, pirating, and mass production of works bearing the image of Love. Daniel E. O'Leary discusses the artist's development through an examniation of his journal/sketchbooks from 1958-1963; Susan Elizabeth Ryan investigates Indiana's painting Love, its origins and impact on the artist's career; and Aprile Gallant contributes an essay on Indiana's preoccupation with the idea of the American Dream.

--Book Jacket.