Here’s what you didn’t know about Robert Indiana’s iconic sculpture LOVE.
1. Though he’s often considered on the of the harbingers of Pop Art for his brightly colored and text-based reimaginings of commercial signage, Indiana himself doesn’t like the label. Instead, as he states in our 2013 interview, “I still think of myself as Hard-Edge,” putting him in league with figures like his lifelong friend Ellsworth Kelley.
2. His LOVE sculpture, with its simple message and jauntily crooked “O,” is now one of the most instantly recognizable works of contemporary art. The design’s origins are humble—Indiana was commissioned by MoMA to create the museum’s 1964 Christmas card after its director Alfred Barr took a liking to the young artist’s graphic style and early text paintings.
3. Since then, LOVE has been realized and remixed in a slew of formats, from New York’s much-loved public sculpture (and tourist paraphernalia) to far-flung iterations including AMOR in D.C.’s National Sculpture Gallery and AHAVA (“love” in Hebrew) in Jerusalem’s Israel Museum.
4. In this special edition from the Indianapolis Museum of Art (whose collection includes the original LOVE sculpture from 1970), Indiana’s design is rendered in four colors as an adorable scaled-down version, perfect for adding a touch of “love” to your desk, table, or bookshelf.
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