Gog is one of a series of small one-word paintings that Indiana created between 1960 and 1962.
The title, Gog, may be a Biblical reference to the figure of “Gog from Magog” mentioned in the book of Ezekiel or the “Gog and Magog” mentioned in the Book of Revelation. Gog may also be a shortened version of the name Gogo, one of the two primary characters in Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot. In a July 27, 1990, interview with Susan Elizabeth Ryan Indiana called Beckett “without doubt my favorite contemporary playwright” and his sculpture Hole (1960–62) was named after the town in Beckett’s novel Molloy.