Robert Indiana’s obsessions and precision enabled him to give order to his life, a new show at Yorkshire Sculpture Park suggests
Larry Aldrich, an American fashion designer, commissioned a painting from Robert Indiana, neither could have foreseen the consequences for the artist’s career. The self-described “painter of signs” produced “Love Is God”, a work that spells out its title in white letters, set in a circle against a monochrome background. The idea had “burst into mind”, Indiana explained, when he learnt that Aldrich was converting an old Christian Science church into a gallery in Ridgefield, Connecticut.
The original LOVE sculpture was soon replicated in more than 60 editions around the world. Indiana never copyrighted the design and rip-offs proliferated. “It was a marvellous idea, but it was also a terrible mistake,” he remarked bitterly in 2014, four years before his death. “It became too popular.”
Born in New Castle, Indiana, in 1928, the artist was adopted as an infant by Earl Clark and Carmen Watters. Life was tough for the family during the Depression: Indiana recalled living in 21 different houses before the age of 17. He joined theArmy Air Forces and later used the GI Bill to study at the Art Institute of Chicago and Edinburgh University, before settling in New York.
In Indiana’s hands, three-letter words became sculptural objects. He was obsessed with proportion and numbers. “People don’t stop to think about how beautiful numbers are,” he said. “One Through Zero ”, a gleaming line-up of aluminium figures on’s lawn, is testimony to his workmanship: his obsessions and precision enabled him to give order to his life, the show suggests.
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