Robert Indiana’s Decade: Autoportrait paintings are a series of autobiographical portraits that he began in 1971. The works, which the artist considered a throwback to his American Dream series, consist of three groups of ten paintings in different sizes: 24-, 48-, and 72-inches. The 24- and 48-inch works made their debut in Robert Indiana: New Paintings and Sculpture, held at the Galerie Denise René, New York, November 22–December 30, 1972.
The composition of Decade: Autoportrait 1961 is based on a series of forms that had particular resonance for Indiana, including the numeral “1,” which represents the idea of the individual; a five-sided star, which alludes to the stars of the American flag; and a circle, which, in Christian Science, whose teachings he had been exposed to as a child, represents the eternal aspect of life. This canvas and the 24-inch Decade: Autoportrait 1969 are the only two works from the series that do not include a decagon, whose ten sides reference the theme of decade, in the composition. These shapes, together with fragments of text that include “IND,” the abbreviation of the artist’s name, are layered upon one another, suggesting overlapping transparent planes.
Decade: Autoportrait 1961 includes the words “Eat” and “Bowery.” “Eat,” a word Indiana associated with his mother, as it was the last word she said to him before she died, first appeared in his work in 1961, in a series of drawings. “Bowery” refers to a street and neighborhood. Although Indiana lived in Coenties Slip in 1961, by the time he began his Decade: Autoportrait series, he had moved to a studio on the southwest corner of Bowery and Spring Streets.