Some of my new paintings have used the colors of black and yellow and black and yellow comes directly from traffic signs, and although not all traffic signs, of course, are expressive of danger, and so forth, still black and yellow to me infers danger. And the last [number], which would therefore be the zero, which certainly could be considered death from any number of standpoints . . . Then, too, I have the Golden Zero which is a painting of predominantly black and there again using the yellow so that would correlate with what I just said.
— Robert Indiana
Arthur C. Carr, “The Reminiscences of Robert Indiana,” New York, November 1965, Arthur C. Carr papers; Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library, p. 95.