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The Big Four

1963

Images

The Big Four, a diamond shaped painting consisting of four diamond shaped panels, each with a yellow numeral four in a red circle. Each four faces a different direction.

The Big Four

1963

Oil on canvas

Four panels, overall: 84 × 84 in. (213.4 × 213.4 cm), diamond

Each panel: 42 × 42 in. (106.7 × 106.7 cm)

 

Photo: Dennis and Diana Griggs; Artwork: © Star of Hope Foundation, Vinalhaven, Maine

Installation view of the exhibition Richard Stankiewicz, Robert Indiana, at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, October 22–November 24, 1963. Left to right, The Big Four (1963), The American Gas Works (1961–62), The Rebecca (1962), The Beware Danger American Dream #4 (1963), and The Triumph of Tira (1960–62),  

Installation view of the exhibition Richard Stankiewicz, Robert Indiana, at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, October 22–November 24, 1963. Left to right, The Big Four (1963), The American Gas Works (1961–62), The Rebecca (1962), The Beware Danger American Dream #4 (1963), and The Triumph of Tira (1960–62)

 

Courtesy of Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Jan van der Marck papers, 1942-2010. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Description

Robert Indiana: . . . 4 is not a happy number. 4 is a dangerous number. My fourth American Dream was a danger painting. “Beware; beware. Danger.”

Arthur Carr: Who says that 4 is dangerous? Is this in your experience?

Indiana: Well, this is an old—

Carr: Common—

Indiana: Superstition. 4 is not a lucky number. Therefore it’s yellow; it’s a yellow 4. And yellow is, of, of course, it’s also gold. Still yellow is a color which suggests difficulties.

 

Arthur C. Carr, “The Reminiscences of Robert Indiana,” New York, November 1965, Arthur C. Carr papers; Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library, p. 96.