Art from the On the Bowery Portfolio, 1971

Robert Indiana   Master Artists

Robert Indiana is an American artist. He was born on the 13th of September, 1928 in New Castle, Indiana. He joined the Pop-Art movement in New York after his graduation from Arsenal Technical High School in Indianapolis. He used some distinctive imagery drawing on commercial art approaches blended with existentialism. He calls that art "sculptural poems".

In 1962, Robert Indiana had his first solo exhibition in Eleanor Ward's Stable Gallery located in New York. Now, Indiana is represented in many museums around the world and counts more than 30 solo exhibitions during his career.

He created his famous iconic work LOVE for a Christmas card for the Museum of Modern Art in 1964. It was a great success and later US Postal Service included this artwork on stamps in 1973, it was called the “Love Stamps" series. Sculptural versions of The Love have been installed in many cities around the world like Philadelphia, and NYC. Then he created various versions in different languages like “Amor" in Spanish and “Ahava" (which means love in Hebrew) for the Israel Museum Art Garden in Jerusalem, Israel.

Between 1996 and 1997, Robert Indiana created two different portfolios: The book of Love and The American Dream. They are composed of many Serigraphs and poems written by Robert Creeley.

In 2008, Robert Indiana set up new sculptures and artworks with the word “Hope". He used the same concept to his Love. This image was famous during the presidential campaign of Barack Obama. The Obama campaign sold T-shirts, pins, bumper stickers, posters and other items adorned with HOPE. Editions of the sculpture have been released and sold internationally and the artist himself has called HOPE "Love's close relative".