The LOVE sculpture, which I think is probably the most beautiful thing that I have caused to bring about. This is an edition of, there were six of these, but each one of these LOVEs were carved individually. It is solid aluminum, it is not a casting. Just details. It is almost jewel-like.
— 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.
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 Indiana experimented further with this format, painting the first canvases in his LOVE series. In May of 1965 the first LOVE painting to be exhibited in a gallery was included in a solo exhibition at the Rolf Nelson Gallery, Los Angeles, and in November the Museum of Modern Art’s Christmas card featuring a red, blue, and green version of LOVE was released.
This 12-inch hand-cut aluminum LOVE was Indiana’s first LOVE sculpture. It was published by Multiples, Inc. as an edition of six, plus one artist’s proof, and was first exhibited in his 1966 solo show at the Stable Gallery, New York.