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The Black Diamond American Dream #2

1962

Images

The Black Diamond American Dream #2 is an 85 by 85 inch black diamond canvas containing four circles. The yellow circle at the top corner contains the word EAT, in black letters, painted twice in a cruciform design, against a red cross, and four smaller red circles containing a blue star. The blue circle in the right corner of the diamond contains the word juke in yellow, and two black and one yellow star both above and below the word. Surrounding it is a yellow and red ring with the numerals one through eight in black. The red circle at the bottom of the canvas contains a black star with a red numeral two, and smaller black circles with yellow stars in between the arms of the black star. Surrounding the circle is a yellow ring with "The American Dream" painted in black. The green circle in the left corner of the diamond contains the word Jack painted in red, with a red star above and below. It is encircled by a yellow ring with ten black stars.

The Black Diamond American Dream #2

1962

Oil on canvas

85 × 85 in. (215.9 × 215.9 cm), diamond

Museu Colecção Berardo, Lisbon

 

Photo: Courtesy of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Artwork: © Morgan Art Foundation Ltd./Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY

Detail from Robert Indiana's journal entry for May 13, 1962 featuring a color sketch of the painting The Black Diamond American Dream #2

Detail from Robert Indiana's journal entry for May 13, 1962

 

Courtesy Star of Hope Foundation, Vinalhaven, Maine

Description

Sidney Janis’ extravaganza "New Realists" which requires an extra gallery to accommodate the Pop flood hangs his Black American Dream # 2 in juxtaposition with some of the British precursors such as Black and Phillips. The show creates a critical furor. A dark horse, The Black Dream, goes immediately into the immensely respectable private collection of the president of the Museum of Modern Art. 

— Robert Indiana

 

Except from the artist’s autochronology, first published in John W. McCoubrey and Robert Indiana, Robert Indiana (Philadelphia: Institute of Contemporary Art and Falcon Press, 1968).