Robert Indiana’s Hartley Elegies (1989–94) is a series of 18 paintings inspired by Marsden Hartley’s War Motif series, which Hartley executed as a tribute to the young German soldier Karl von Freyburg, who died during World War I and with whom Hartley had a deep friendship. Indiana employed Hartley’s stylized visual language throughout the Elegies, while reinvesting them with additional content and meaning. KvF X, like KvF V, contains a ring incorporating the phrase “Truth, Friendship, Love,” a slight variation on the motto of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, “Friendship, Love, and Truth.” Hartley and von Freyburg’s names also appear in the ring, so the emphasis on truth, by placing it at the front of the phrase, can be read as an insistence on bringing the true nature of their relationship to light, instead of hiding it behind coded symbols. By choosing the motto of the Odd Fellows Indiana also directly linked himself to the two men, as his Vinalhaven residence, the Star of Hope, had once been an Odd Fellows hall.
The design within the ring in KvF X is similar to that of KvF V, with the Iron Cross that von Freyburg was awarded dominating much of the circle, however this painting’s color scheme is red, white, and blue, giving it a more patriotic feel, and underlying that while Hartley’s works are a tribute to a German officer, Indiana’s Elegies are his homage to an American painter. The work also includes the year of Hartley and Freyburg’s deaths, 44 and 14, respectively.