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 1968 is grounded by the word “Bouwerie,” which is Dutch for Bowery, and a reference to Indiana’s studio located at the corner of Spring Street and Bowery Street. “Basalt” is a reference to a town outside of Aspen, where he spent the summer of 1968. Indiana was one of five artists-in-residence at the Aspen Center of Contemporary Art, alongside Carl Andre, Donald Judd, Stanley Landsman, and DeWain Valentine.
“Blue” recalls the artist's home state of Indiana. Big Blue is the name of a river that runs through his birthplace, the town of New Castle, which he commemorated in a 1969 painting of that name, and blue is one of the three colors in the red, green, and blue color combination found in many of his works from the 1960s. Indiana noted that the combination was inspired by childhood memories of the red and green Phillips 66 signs standing out boldly against the blue Indianapolis sky. He traveled to Indianapolis that year for the September 5 opening of his retrospective at the John Herron Art Institute, and on the artist’s fortieth birthday the mayor of Indianapolis proclaimed September 13 “Robert Indiana Day.”
“Err” is a reference to one of the three letter words, along with eat, die, and hug, which frequently appear in his works; the four words first appeared together in 1963 in The Demuth American Dream No. 5, and each appears in a work in the 48-inch Decade: Autoportrait series. "Err" in this work, "Eat" in Decade: Autoportrait 1963, "Die" in Decade: Autoportrait 1965, and "Hug" in Decade: Autoportrait 1967.