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Decade: Autoportrait 1962

1977

Images

Decade: Autoportrait 1962, a 72-inch square painting with a green ground. A circle containing a blue decagon dominates the canvas. In the center of the circle is a large green, red and orange numeral one. Painted on top of the one is a green and red star, and on top of the star is a blue, green and black numeral two. Text, arrows and numbers are painted in the spaces between the arms of the stars. On the right side New York is painted in orange and red letters, with a green arrow painted underneath the word "new", and a dark green arrow painted to the left of the letters R and K. Below the K an orange number 72 has been painted. The number 62 and Indiana are painted in yellow, orange and red letters at the bottom of the circle. The words "Jack" and "The Battery" are painted in orange and red letters in the left side of the circle, as well as a green arrow.

Decade: Autoportrait 1962

1977

Oil on canvas

72 × 72 in. (182.9 × 182.9 cm)

 

Photo: Steven Sloman; Artwork: © Morgan Art Foundation Ltd./Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY

Postcard from Robert Indiana to Eleanor Ward and Alah Groh at the Stable Gallery, 1962, with an image of John F. Kennedy

Postcard from Robert Indiana to Eleanor Ward and Alah Groh at the Stable Gallery, 1962

 

Stable Gallery Records, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution

Description

I think 1962 was the last year that Jack Kennedy lived, so that usually Jack refers to the president. However, if we want to keep consistent, in ’52 I met someone named Jack Curtis, who became an important friend in my life, and so it’s a dual, a 2 celebration you see . . . Obviously now I am celebrating New York, and the Battery. Again, Coenties Slip was just a few blocks away from the Battery, and then that’s it. These are just very brief comments on my life . . . Well it was, shall we say, a happy year. ’62, remember, was the year of my first one man show in New York [held at the Stable Gallery, October 16–November 3].

— Robert Indiana

 

Excerpt from Susan Elizabeth Ryan, interview with Robert Indiana, May 5, 1992, Robert Indiana: Figures of Speech Archive, 1987–2005.