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Decade: Autoportrait 1966

1972

Images

Decade: Autoportrait 1966, a 72-inch square painting with a blue ground and a circle containing a green decagon dominating the canvas. In the center of the circle is a large blue, green, and red numeral one. Painted on top of the one is a blue and red star, and on top of the star is a blue, green, and red numeral six. Text, arrows and numbers are painted in the spaces between the arms of the stars. On the upper right side Bowery is painted in red letters, a red arrow and the red number 72 appear in the lower right. Indiana is painted in red at the bottom of the circle, with a red and green 66 above. The word "Love" and number "666" are painted in red are painted in red in the left side of the circle.

Decade: Autoportrait 1966

1972

Oil on canvas

72 × 72 in. (182.9 × 182.9 cm)

 

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

Poster for Indiana's 1966 show at the Stable Gallery with a green LOVE design, the L and a tilted O above the V and E, against a blue background

Indiana's silkscreened poster for his third solo exhibition at Stable Gallery, the "LOVE show," in May 1966; printed by Chiron Press, New York

Description

’66 is obviously the LOVE colors . . . And in ’66 I had my LOVE show at the Stable Gallery. And 6, I have a big 6 there, and since I have 66 I chose to use the 666 which comes out of my sixth Dream. This could be a part of my sixth Dream. And LOVE is the LOVE show, and I was on the Bowery at that time. 

— Robert Indiana

 

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