R.I.P.

Beyond LOVE: Revisit the Iconic Works of the Artist Robert Indiana, Who Died Recently


UK - London - Love sculpture artwork
Mike Kemp/Getty Images

He may have created it back in 1964, but the postage-stamp-turned-worldwide sculpture LOVE has proven so popular in the decades since that even up until and likely after Robert Indiana‘s death this past Saturday at age 89, it remains far and away the artist’s best known work. Of course, there was much more to Indiana’s oeuvre than what he came to refer to as the 20th century’s “most plagiarized work of art”—so much more, in fact, that in 2013, the Whitney Museum staged a retrospective titled “Robert Indiana: Beyond Love” to finally direct some of the spotlight toward other works by the artist, who was born Robert Clark in exactly the state you would expect. The paintings and wooden sculptures on view showcased how he also applied his signature bold, all-caps lettering to words like “HUG,” “DIE,” and “EAT”—the latter of which also happened to be the all-caps title of a 1964 film made by Andy Warhol, which starred Indiana eating a mushroom. His breakthrough came in the same ’60s Pop art wave as Warhol, though other than once sharing a studio with Cy Twombly, he always stood apart from the rest of the bunch; much of his work tackled sociopolitical issues in America, from his early antiwar sentiments to his post-9/11 series titled Peace Paintings. In remembrance of the artist, take a look back at the works you’re likely less familiar with, here.

1
Photo by Christopher Stach, © 2018 Morgan Art Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Installation view of Robert Indiana’s ONE through ZERO at Paul Kasmin Gallery, 2018.

2
Photo by Sheldan C. Collins, © 2018 The Morgan Art Foundation, Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Installation view of “Robert Indiana: Beyond LOVE,” on view September 2013 through January 2014 at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

3
Photo by Christopher Stach, © 2018 Morgan Art Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Installation view of Robert Indiana’s LOVE WALL at Paul Kasmin Gallery, 2018.

4
Photo by Paul Kasmin, © 2018 Morgan Art Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Installation view of Robert Indiana’s One Through Zero at The Glass House, Connecticut.

5
Photo by Dan Bradica, © 2018 Morgan Art Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Robert Indiana, Call Me Ishmael, 1964. Wood, iron, gesso, and oil on wood.

6
© 2018 Morgan Art Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Robert Indiana, Terror in November, 2000.

7
Photo by Sheldan C. Collins, © 2018 The Morgan Art Foundation, Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Installation view of “Robert Indiana: Beyond LOVE,” on view September 2013 through January 2014 at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

8
Mike Kemp/Getty Images

Robert Indiana’s famous LOVE, on view in London at the site of the 1993 IRA bombing.

9
Photo by Paul Kasmin

Robert Indiana at his home in Vilenhaven, Maine, 2011.