Robert Indiana

Works
Biography

"Robert Indiana has made of basic American iconography the most subtle and evocative resonance of color his time has seen. He has used the figure of language and number to echo endlessly the paradigms of human emotions and made LOVE an international sign of transcendent power. He is the most deftly Emersonian of our painters, the consummate signer of our human declaration." -Robert Creeley

Robert Indiana, one of the preeminent figures in American art since the 1960s, has played a central role in the development of assemblage art, hard-edge painting and Pop art. He was born Robert Clark in New Castle, Indiana on September 13, 1928. Adopted as an infant, he spent his childhood moving frequently throughout his namesake state.

A self-proclaimed "American painter of signs," Indiana has created a highly original body of work that explores American identity, personal history and the power of abstraction and language. He has established an important legacy that resonates in the work of many contemporary artists who make the written word a central element of their oeuvre. In addition to being a painter and sculptor, Indiana has created a significant number of prints, among them the Numbers Portfolio (1968), collaboration with the poet Robert Creeley, as well as many other works of graphic art.

Since 1978, he has lived and worked in Vinalhaven, Maine.
Exhibitions