Indiana first began experimenting with his stacked LOVE image in 1964, in a series of rubbings that he sent to friends as Christmas cards. Over the following months the artist experimented further with this format, painting the first canvases in his LOVE series. Indiana’s first LOVE sculpture, a 12-inch hand-cut aluminum work published by Multiples, Inc., debuted in his 1966 solo show at the Stable Gallery, New York.
This LOVE sculpture was carved from marble, which Indiana viewed as one of the two noble materials, along with bronze, in the Western tradition of sculpture. The artist liased closely with the Bottega Versiliese, a small sculpture workshop in Pietrasanta, near Carrara, Italy, where over a period of thirteen years fifty sculptures were carved from a variety of marbles. Indiana himself selected the marbles and approved details of the carving and the finish.