Indiana spent the summer of 1968 as one of five artists-in-residence at the Aspen Center of Contemporary Art. The American LOVE is one of what he called “small bijou LOVEs,” a series of paintings all on 12-inch-square canvases, that he created that summer. These works consist of one, two, or four panels and appear in grisaille and a variety of color combinations: red, white, and blue (The American LOVE series), blue, green, and white (The Aspen LOVE series), and white, yellow, and orange (The Santa Fe LOVE series). The works were sold or given as gifts to prominent supporters of the Aspen Center of Contemporary Art, collectors in Santa Fe and Indianapolis, and fellow artists, among them DeWain Valentine.
Indiana later translated his The American LOVE series into scupture, in sizes ranging from 12 to 144 inches.