Robert Indiana: Beyond LOVE
Sept 26, 2013–Jan 5, 2014
Robert Indiana (b. 1928), Decade: Autoportrait 1961, 1972-77. Oil on canvas, 72 × 72 in. (182.9 × 182.9 cm). Collection of the McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas; gift of Robert L. B. Tobin. ©2013 Morgan Art Foundation, Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Robert Indiana (b. Robert Clark, 1928) first emerged on the wave of Pop Art that engulfed the art world in the early 1960s. Bold and visually dazzling, his work embraced the vocabulary of highway signs and roadside entertainments that were commonplace in post war America. Presciently, he used words to explore themes of American identity, racial injustice, and the illusion and disillusion of love. The appearance in 1966 of what became his signature image, LOVE, and its subsequent proliferation on unauthorized products, eclipsed the public’s understanding of the emotional poignancy and symbolic complexity of his art. This retrospective reveals an artist whose work, far from being unabashedly optimistic and affirmative, addresses the most fundamental issues facing humanity—love, death, sin, and forgiveness—giving new meaning to our understanding of the ambiguities of the American Dream and the plight of the individual in a pluralistic society.
Robert Indiana: Beyond LOVE is organized by Barbara Haskell, Curator.
Major support for Robert Indiana: Beyond LOVE is provided by Morgan Art Foundation.
Generous support is provided by Shirley and William Lehman, The Lunder Foundation, and the Robert B. Mayer Family.
Additional support is provided by The Gage Fund, Inc., Virginia and Herbert Lust, the Overbrook Foundation, and Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel.
Installation photography
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Installation view of Robert Indiana: Beyond LOVE (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, September 26, 2013–January 5, 2014). © 2013 The Morgan Art Foundation, Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph by Sheldan C. Collins
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Installation view of Robert Indiana: Beyond LOVE (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, September 26, 2013–January 5, 2014). © 2013 The Morgan Art Foundation, Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph by Sheldan C. Collins
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Installation view of Robert Indiana: Beyond LOVE (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, September 26, 2013–January 5, 2014). © 2013 The Morgan Art Foundation, Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph by Sheldan C. Collins
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Installation view of Robert Indiana: Beyond LOVE (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, September 26, 2013–January 5, 2014). © 2013 The Morgan Art Foundation, Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph by Sheldan C. Collins
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Installation view of Robert Indiana: Beyond LOVE (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, September 26, 2013–January 5, 2014). © 2013 The Morgan Art Foundation, Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph by Sheldan C. Collins
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Installation view of Robert Indiana: Beyond LOVE (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, September 26, 2013–January 5, 2014). © 2013 The Morgan Art Foundation, Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph by Sheldan C. Collins