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Florida

1966

Images

A 70 by 60 inch dark canvas with the title, Florida, painted in pink stenciled letters across the center bottom edge of the painting. Above the title and dominating the canvas is a large circle consisting of a pink image of the state of Florida in the center. Around this image is a white ring with stenciled red text surrounded by a blue ring and another white ring with blue stenciled text. The text reads, starting in the outer ring, "Just as in the anatomy of man every nation," and in the inner ring "must have its hind part."

Florida

1966

Oil on canvas

70 × 60 in. (177.8 × 152.4 cm)

 

Artwork: © The Robert Indiana Legacy Initiative/Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY

A historical marker for the attack on peaceful NAACP demonstrators in Jacksonville, Florida, on August 27, 1960, the day now known as Ax Handle Saturday

A historical marker for the attack on peaceful NAACP demonstrators in Jacksonville, Florida, on August 27, 1960, the day now known as Ax Handle Saturday

Installation view of Indiana's Confederacy series, left to right, Alabama (1965), Louisiana (1965), Mississippi (1965), and Florida (1966), in Robert Indiana: Beyond LOVE, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, September 26, 2013–January 5, 2014,  

Installation view of Indiana's Confederacy series, left to right, Alabama (1965), Louisiana (1965), Mississippi (1965), and Florida (1966), in Robert Indiana: Beyond LOVE, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, September 26, 2013–January 5, 2014

 

Photo: Tom Powel Imaging

Description

The situation in the South affects everyone and I can’t wake up in the morning and see a newspaper or listen to a radio without becoming perhaps ill at the news that comes through. I am sensitive to this and it’s part of my painting.

— Robert Indiana

 

Excerpt from Irma B. Jaffe, Art News and Interviews, “Alienation and Commitment,” 1966, Irma Jaffe interviews, 1965–1977, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

 

Florida is currently on display in Robert Indiana: The American Dream, Pace Gallery, New York.