Brow - 1960–62 - Artworks-Items

Images

A 44 3/4 by 18 1/2 by 13 3/4 inch sculpture consisting of a wooden beam with a haunched tenon on a wooden base. The top half of the sculpture has been painted black, with the exception of a blue containing an exposed wood circle in the top front center, and the top left and right sides, which have been painted with diagonal red and black stripes. The bottom half of the sculpture has been left unpainted, except for the title, "Brow," painted in yellow stenciled letters in the middle of the work. An iron wheel has been affixed to the lower left and right sides of the work, and a wooden peg has been affixed to the front of the sculpture in between the wheels.

Brow

1960–62

Gesso, oil, wood, wire, and iron and wooden wheels on wood

44 3/4 × 18 1/2 × 13 3/4 in. (113.7 × 47 × 34.9 cm)

Photo: Tom Powel Imaging; Artwork: © Star of Hope Foundation, Vinalhaven, Maine

Robert Indiana's journal entry for April 23, 1961

Courtesy Star of Hope Foundation, Vinalhaven, Maine

Description

[Brow] happens to be an homage to Max Ernst because frequently he used that blue disc in his paintings. But also I am thinking about Taliesin, which was Frank Lloyd Wright's studio, which I think is something like shining brow.

— Robert Indiana

Excerpt from Robert Indiana, Lecture in conjunction with the exhibition Wood Works: Constructions by Robert Indiana, Washington, D.C. May 3, 1984, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.