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Hole

1960–62

Images

A 45 by 19 by 13 inch sculpture consisting of a wooden beam with a haunched tenon on a wooden base. Iron and wooden wheels have been affixed to the lower right and left of the sculpture, in between the wheels, on the front of the sculpture, is a wooden peg. The work's title, Hole, appears above the wheels, painted in black stenciled letters against a yellow band of paint. Above the title are a yellow and a red arrow, each pointing towards a hole in the sculpture. The tenon and top front of the beam are painted red.

Hole

1960–62

Gesso, oil, wood, and iron and wooden wheels on wood

45 × 19 × 13 in. (114.3 × 48.3 × 33 cm)

 

Photo: Bruce C. Jones; Artwork: © Morgan Art Foundation Ltd./Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY

Robert Indiana's journal entry for September 1, 1960, featuring a sketch of Hole

Robert Indiana's journal entry for September 1, 1960

 

Courtesy Star of Hope Foundation, Vinalhaven, Maine

Installation view of Robert Indiana: Beyond LOVE, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, September 26, 2013–January 5, 2014,  

Installation view of Robert Indiana: Beyond LOVE, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, September 26, 2013–January 5, 2014

 

Photo: Tom Powel Imaging

Description

I started using this wood and these other found objects, the old rusted wheels, because very early on I simply didn’t have money to buy canvas; this seemed like a marvelous natural resource . . . and Hole, obviously there is a hole in that piece of wood, but I was very, very fond of Samuel Beckett. And in one of Beckett’s books [Molloy] the elderly gentleman and his son are bicycling along the English countryside. The bicycle breaks down and the old man sends his son into a little town named Hole.  So this commemorates those two situations.  

— Robert Indiana

 

Excerpt from Robert Indiana, Lecture in conjunction with the exhibition Wood Works: Constructions by Robert Indiana, Washington, D.C. May 3, 1984, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.