Indiana dedicated Love Rising (The Black and White Love) to Martin Luther King, Jr., who was assassinated on April 4, 1968. The 12-foot quadripartite painting, the largest of Indiana’s LOVE Walls, was first exhibited that same year, in the Museum of Modern Art, New York’s show In Honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. (October 31–November 3, 1968).
The artist also created three smaller black and white LOVE paintings, including The Black and White LOVE (1965), which he donated to the fifth annual CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) benefit sale (April 27–May 7, 1966). The work was purchased and donated to Spelman College in Atlanta.
Love Rising (The Black and White Love) is currenly on display in Mapping the 60s, at the Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna.