2022 - ROBERT INDIANA

The main summer exhibition in 2022 showed works by the American artist and sculptor, Robert Indiana.

His earliest well-known work was a construct of found timber and metal called Hole. The wood had a hole with the word written in a stencil font below. This promoted many similar constructions, some illustrated above, which he called herms, inspired by ancient Greek pillars used to mark intersections and roads that featured the head of the god Hermes.

In 1961 he produced a painting called The American Dream, which featured four circles containing stars, numerals and script. These shapes continued to appear in his artwork, which he has referred to as the Dream series, as exemplified above.

In 1962 he produced two diamonds containing circles and the words EAT and DIE. The last thing his Mother told him before her death was to be sure to eat. As his work developed he returned to this theme, later incorporating neon lights, and as above, including other simple instructions for life.

Single digit numerics are also a recurring theme in his sculpture and paintings. The above One through zero is a classical example, taken as an allegory for life, with zero representing death.

LOVE must be Indiana's best known image. The original (1966) is installed in Manhattan. It pre-dated the 'flower-power' generation, but is said to have inspired John Lennon to write All You Need is Love. In 1973 it featured on a US postage stamp issued on Valentine's Day...how things change? There must be dozens of variations on this theme, including the one below.

Robert Indiana was a complex man, who tried to make his art simple and approachable. A straightforward unambguous statement serves as a fitting epitaph.