The vein of exploring his personal history over the span of a single decade has once more provided Indiana with a general design in his Autoportraits. These new words are independent pictorial inventions, though again of a rather commemorative and celebratory nature. Their associations are coded in words easily understood on at least one level, though here and there secondary meanings remain stubbornly private and opaque. It takes only slight familiarity with the artist’s work and progress to surmise that the “Virgil” emblazoned across his 1966 painting was the composter of “The Mother of Us All,” for which Indiana provided memorable costumes, sets, and a now classic poster. The eye-popping complimentary colors of the 1964 painting, which incorporates the word “Champion,” pays homage to Stuart Davis, who died in that year. For Indiana, Davis stands high in his estimation as a brilliant visual poet of the commonplace word and sign.
—Sam Hunter
Excerpt from Robert Indiana. New York: Galerie Denise René, 1972.