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Mars

1990, cast 2016

Images

A 131 5/8 by 35 7/8 by 35 7/8 inch painted bronze sculpture consisting of a beam atop a base. The work's title, "Mars," appears in stenciled letters against a white ground across the front bottom of the sculpture. A wheel is affixed to both the bottom right and left sides of the sculpture. Three brush axes have been affixed to both the upper right and upper left sides of, and a pitchfork has been affixed at the top of the sculpture.

Mars

1990, cast 2016

Painted bronze

131 5/8 × 35 7/8 × 35 7/8 in. (334 × 91 × 91 cm)

Edition of three plus one artist's proof.

 

Photo: © Jonty Wilde. Courtesy of Yorskhire Sculpture Park; Artwork: © Morgan Art Foundation Ltd./Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY

Installation view of Robert Indiana: A Sculpture Retrospective, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, June 16–September 23, 2018. Left to right, TWO (1978–2003), Grass (1962), Leaves (1965), Chief (1962, cast 1991), Mars (1990, cast 2016), KvF (1991, cast 2015–18) and KvF X (Hartley Elegy) (1989–94),  

Installation view of Robert Indiana: A Sculpture Retrospective, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, June 16–September 23, 2018. Left to right, TWO (1978–2003), Grass (1962), Leaves (1965), Chief (1962, cast 1991), Mars (1990, cast 2016), KvF (1991, cast 2015–18) and KvF X (Hartley Elegy) (1989–94)

 

Photo: Tom Powel Imaging

Description

Mars is a painted bronze rendition of Indiana’s Vinalhaven construction Mars (1990). Indiana considered bronze to be one of the noble materials in the tradition of European sculpture, and had long wanted to turn his wooden sculptures into bronze. In 1991 this dream was realized when eight of his Coenties Slip herms were cast in bronze. Years later, between 2015 and 2018, six of his Vinalhaven constructions were also cast in bronze.