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The Dietary

1962

Images

A 60 by 48 inch painting consisting of a large circular design and text against a yellow ground. The work's title, "The Dietary," appears in black stenciled letters across the bottom of the canvas. Above this is a black circle surrounded by a ring containing the numerals one through eight alternating between red against a yellow ground and yellow against a red ground. This is surrounded by a ring containing the word DIE, painted in stenciled letters eight times, alternating between black letters against a white background and white letters against a black background.

The Dietary

1962

Oil on canvas

60 × 48 in. (152.4 × 121.9 cm)

 

Photo: Courtesy of Sotheby's, New York; Artwork: © Star of Hope Foundation, Vinalhaven, Maine

Detail from Robert Indiana's journal entry for June 5, 1962, with a color sketch of a detail of the painting The Dietary

Detail from Robert Indiana's journal entry for June 5, 1962

 

Courtesy Star of Hope Foundation, Vinalhaven, Maine

Detail from Robert Indiana's journal entry for June 6, 1962 with a color sketch of the painting The Dietary

Detail from Robert Indiana's journal entry for June 6, 1962

 

Courtesy Star of Hope Foundation, Vinalhaven, Maine

Description

Originally conceived as a diptych with The Eateria, this work was sold separately. In an interview with Richard Brown Baker, held September 18, 1963, Indiana noted that the painting was the first of his works to be illustrated in color in a magazine, in the September 20, 1963, issue of Life.

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