The Last Days Of Robert Indiana

When reclusive, millionaire artist Robert Indiana died in 2018, he left behind dark rumors and scandal, as well as an estate embroiled in lawsuits and facing accusations of fraud. Here is the true story of the artist's final days, the aftermath, the deceptive world that surrounded him, and the inner workings of art as very big business. "I'm an artist, not a business man," Robert Indiana said, refusing to copyright his iconic LOVE sculpture in 1965. An odd and tortured soul, an artist who wanted both fame and solitude, Indiana surrounded himself with people to manage his life and work. Yet, he frequently changed his mind and often fired or belittled those who worked with him. By 2008, when Indiana created the sculpture HOPE--or did he?--the artist had signed away his work for others to exploit, creating doubt about whether he had even seen artwork sold for very high prices under his name. At the time of his death, Indiana left an estate worth millions--and unsettling suspicions. There were allegations of fraudulent artwork, of elder abuse, of caregivers who subjected him to horrendous living conditions. There were questions about the inconclusive autopsy and rumors that his final will had been signed under coercion. There were strong suspicions about the freeloaders who'd attached themselves to the famous artist. "In the final hours of his life," the author writes, "Robert Indiana was without the grace of a better angel, as the people closest to him covered their tracks and plotted their defenses." With unparalleled access to the key players in Indiana's life, author Bob Keyes tells a fast-paced and riveting story that provides a rare inside look into the life of an artist as well as the often, too often, unscrupulous world of high-end art. The reader is taken inside the world of art dealers, law firms, and an array of local characters in Maine whose lives intersected with the internationally revered artist living in an old Odd Fellows Hall on Vinalhaven Island. The Last Days of Robert Indiana is for anyone interested in contemporary art, business, and the perilous intersection between them. It an extraordinary window into the life and death of a singular and contradictory American artist--one whose work touched countless millions through everything from postage stamps to political campaigns to museums--even as he lived and died in isolation, with a lack of love, the loss of hope, and lots and lots of money.

"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.

"When reclusive, millionaire artist Robert Indiana died in 2018, he left behind dark rumors and scandal, as well as an estate embroiled in lawsuits and facing accusations of fraud. Here is the true story of the artist's final days, the aftermath, the deceptive world that surrounded him, and the inner workings of art as very big business. "I'm an artist, not a business man," Robert Indiana said, refusing to copyright his iconic LOVE sculpture in 1965. An odd and tortured soul, an artist who wanted both fame and solitude, Indiana surrounded himself with people to manage his life and work. Yet, he frequently changed his mind and often fired or belittled those who worked with him. By 2008, when Indiana created the sculpture HOPE-or did he?-the artist had signed away his work for others to exploit, creating doubt about whether he had even seen artwork sold for very high prices under his name. At the time of his death, Indiana left an estate worth millions-and unsettling suspicions. There were allegations of fraudulent artwork, of elder abuse, of caregivers who subjected him to horrendous living conditions. There were questions about the inconclusive autopsy and rumors that his final will had been signed under coercion. There were strong suspicions about the freeloaders who'd attached themselves to the famous artist. "In the final hours of his life," the author writes, "Robert Indiana was without the grace of a better angel, as the people closest to him covered their tracks and plotted their defenses." With unparalleled access to the key players in Indiana's life, author Bob Keyes tells a fast-paced and riveting story that provides a rare inside look into the life of an artist as well as the often, too often, unscrupulous world of high-end art. The reader is taken inside the world of art dealers, law firms, and an array of local characters in Maine whose lives intersected with the internationally revered artist living in an old Odd Fellows Hall on Vinalhaven Island. The Last Days of Robert Indiana is for anyone interested in contemporary art, business, and the perilous intersection between them. It an extraordinary window into the life and death of a singular and contradictory American artist-one whose work touched countless millions through everything from postage stamps to political campaigns to museums-even as he lived and died in isolation, with a lack of love, the loss of hope, and lots and lots of money"--

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, 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.

--Book Jacket.