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Indepth Arts News: "Love and The American Dream: The Art of Robert Indiana" 1999-06-25 until 1999-10-17 Portland Museum of Art Portland, ME, USA United States of America
Indiana also created one of the most widely recognized works of art in the world: Love.
Despite the popularity of this image--or perhaps because of it--many critics have dismissed him
as a designer, an opportunist, and a one-hit-wonder. Much of Indianas important
contribution to American art has been overshadowed by the proliferation, pirating, and mass
production of works bearing the image of LOVE, yet this is also a vital and important part
of his career. Love is also part of the artists rethinking of the American Dream, but because
of its crucial importance in Indianas career, it will comprise a separate section of the
exhibition and catalogue.
>Although Robert Indiana came to
prominence during the 1960s as a Pop artist, his concerns have
always differed greatly from those of his contemporaries. National
and cultural identity have always held more interest for Indiana than
the mass media and trappings of consumer culture. As a self-styled
American icon, his influences, methods, and outlook mirror that of his
native country. What distinguishes Indiana from his Pop colleagues
is the depth of his personal engagement with his subject matter:
America and American life.
Indianas works all speak to the vital forces that have shaped American culture in the late half
of the 20th century: personal and national identity, political and social upheaval and stasis, the
rise of consumer culture, and the pressures of history. In a word, the American Dream. The
American Dream is the cornerstone of Indianas mature work. The roots of this powerful
concept pervaded the artists Depression-era childhood, as well as the social and political
aspirations of the United States during his formative years as an artist (1940s-1960s). It was
the theme of his first major painting (sold to The Museum of Modern Art in 1961), as well as
a series of works that continues to the present (the artist finished The Seventh American Dream
in 1998). Indianas process of reconstructing and redefining the American Dream has taken
many forms: his political paintings, like The Confederacy: Alabama (1965); his literary
paintings, like The Calumet (1961); and his autoportraits and investigations of celebrity and
identity, like The Metamorphosis of Norma Jean Mortenson (1963-1967).
Indiana also created one of the most widely recognized works of art in the world: Love.
Despite the popularity of this image--or perhaps because of it--many critics have dismissed him
as a designer, an opportunist, and a one-hit-wonder. Much of Indianas important
contribution to American art has been overshadowed by the proliferation, pirating, and mass
production of works bearing the image of LOVE, yet this is also a vital and important part
of his career. Love is also part of the artists rethinking of the American Dream, but because
of its crucial importance in Indianas career, it will comprise a separate section of the
exhibition and catalogue.
>Indianas works all speak to the vital forces that have shaped American culture in the late half
of the 20th century: personal and national identity, political and social upheaval and stasis, the
rise of consumer culture, and the pressures of history. In a word, the American Dream. The
American Dream is the cornerstone of Indianas mature work. The roots of this powerful
concept pervaded the artists Depression-era childhood, as well as the social and political
aspirations of the United States during his formative years as an artist (1940s-1960s). It was
the theme of his first major painting (sold to The Museum of Modern Art in 1961), as well as
a series of works that continues to the present (the artist finished The Seventh American Dream
in 1998). Indianas process of reconstructing and redefining the American Dream has taken
many forms: his political paintings, like The Confederacy: Alabama (1965); his literary
paintings, like The Calumet (1961); and his autoportraits and investigations of celebrity and
identity, like The Metamorphosis of Norma Jean Mortenson (1963-1967).
Indiana also created one of the most widely recognized works of art in the world: Love.
Despite the popularity of this image--or perhaps because of it--many critics have dismissed him
as a designer, an opportunist, and a one-hit-wonder. Much of Indianas important
contribution to American art has been overshadowed by the proliferation, pirating, and mass
production of works bearing the image of LOVE, yet this is also a vital and important part
of his career. Love is also part of the artists rethinking of the American Dream, but because
of its crucial importance in Indianas career, it will comprise a separate section of the
exhibition and catalogue.
>Although Robert Indiana came to
prominence during the 1960s as a Pop artist, his concerns have
always differed greatly from those of his contemporaries. National
and cultural identity have always held more interest for Indiana than
the mass media and trappings of consumer culture. As a self-styled
American icon, his influences, methods, and outlook mirror that of his
native country. What distinguishes Indiana from his Pop colleagues
is the depth of his personal engagement with his subject matter:
America and American life.
Indianas works all speak to the vital forces that have shaped American culture in the late half
of the 20th century: personal and national identity, political and social upheaval and stasis, the
rise of consumer culture, and the pressures of history. In a word, the American Dream. The
American Dream is the cornerstone of Indianas mature work. The roots of this powerful
concept pervaded the artists Depression-era childhood, as well as the social and political
aspirations of the United States during his formative years as an artist (1940s-1960s). It was
the theme of his first major painting (sold to The Museum of Modern Art in 1961), as well as
a series of works that continues to the present (the artist finished The Seventh American Dream
in 1998). Indianas process of reconstructing and redefining the American Dream has taken
many forms: his political paintings, like The Confederacy: Alabama (1965); his literary
paintings, like The Calumet (1961); and his autoportraits and investigations of celebrity and
identity, like The Metamorphosis of Norma Jean Mortenson (1963-1967).
Indiana also created one of the most widely recognized works of art in the world: Love.
Despite the popularity of this image--or perhaps because of it--many critics have dismissed him
as a designer, an opportunist, and a one-hit-wonder. Much of Indianas important
contribution to American art has been overshadowed by the proliferation, pirating, and mass
production of works bearing the image of LOVE, yet this is also a vital and important part
of his career. Love is also part of the artists rethinking of the American Dream, but because
of its crucial importance in Indianas career, it will comprise a separate section of the
exhibition and catalogue.
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This is the first exhibition to
explore the two central themes of
Robert Indianas artistic career:
Love and the American Dream.
Organized by the Portland
Museum of Art, this exhibition
includes more than 70 paintings,
sculpture, and prints from
museums and private collections
around the world.