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 series provides a portrait of his life in the 1960s, and includes references to important names, places, and events. Decade: Autoportrait 1962 references the painting The Black Diamond American Dream #2, which Indiana completed that year and which was exhibited at the Sidney Janis Gallery, New York in International Exhibition of the New Realists, October 31–December 1, 1962. It incorporates both colors and text from the earlier painting: in The Black Diamond American Dream #2 the word “Jack” appears in red stenciled letters in a green circle, and “Juke” in yellow stenciled letters in a blue circle. These words appear in the same colored stenciled letters against the same colored backgrounds in Decade: Autoportrait 1962. “The Slip” at the bottom of the painting is a reference to Coenties Slip, where Indiana lived and worked from 1956–65.