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Soul

1960

Images

A 50 1/2 by 16 3/4 by 13 1/2 inch sculpture consisting of a wooden beam with a tenon, resting on a wooden base. The work's title, Soul, is painted in white stenciled letters across the bottom of the base. Iron wheels have been affixed to the bottom left and right of the sculpture, in between the wheels are red painted flames. Towards the top of the sculpture is a weathered metal disk. The beam's tenon and top few inches have been painted white.

Soul

1960

Gesso, oil, iron, and iron and wooden wheels on wood

50 1/2 × 16 3/4 × 13 1/2 in. (128.3 × 42.6 × 34.3 cm)

 

Photo: Bruce C. Jones; Artwork: © Morgan Art Foundation Ltd./Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY

Installation view of Robert Indiana: A Sculpture Retrospective, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, June 16–September 23, 2018. Left to right, Soul (1960), Zenith (1960), Call Me Indiana (1964/1998), and The Melville Triptych (1962),  

Installation view of Robert Indiana: A Sculpture Retrospective, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, June 16–September 23, 2018. Left to right, Soul (1960), Zenith (1960), Call Me Indiana (1964/1998), and The Melville Triptych (1962)

 

Photo: Tom Powel Imaging

Description

When I was a student at the University of Edinburgh I took a course called Social Philosophy. I cannot remember the instructor’s name but it was my most difficult course and I had to do a paper on the soul. And that was my original contribution to the definition of soul. It was my own writing.  

— Robert Indiana

Excerpt from interview with Susan Elizabeth Ryan, November 14, 1991, Robert Indiana: Figures of Speech Archive, 1987–2005.

 

Soul is currently on display in Robert Indiana: The Sweet Mystery, at the Procuratie Vecchie, Venice.