Skip to content

Polygon: Triangle

1962

Images

Polygon: Triangle, a 24 by 22 inch painting with a red ground. Across the bottom of the canvas the word "triangle" has been painted in white letters. Above this is a blue circle containing a green numeral three within a red triangle. Surrounding this is a white ring with the word "tinitinnabulation" painted in blue.

Polygon: Triangle

1962

Oil on canvas

24 × 22 in. (61 × 55.9 cm)

 

Artwork: © Star of Hope Foundation, Vinalhaven, Maine

Detail from Robert Indiana's journal entry for February 2, 1962,  

Detail from Robert Indiana's journal entry for February 2, 1962

 

Courtesy Star of Hope Foundation, Vinalhaven, Maine

Excerpt from Poe's "The Bells," with an etching of icicles against a night sky

Excerpt from Edgar Allan Poe's "The Bells," published by Porter & Coates, Philadelphia, 1881. Illustration by A Fredericks

Description

This work belongs to Indiana's 1962 Polygon series, small paintings featuring a numeral from 3 to 12 placed inside a polygon of the corresponding number of sides (i.e. 3-Triangle, 4-Square, etc.).  The series features extensive wordplay, with references that are playful, personal, literary, and alliterative. The first example from this series, Polygon: Triangle reads “Tintinnabulation.” The word, which means “a ringing or tinkling of bells," references Edgar Allen Poe's poem “The Bells” (1849): “To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells / From the bells, bells, bells, bells.”