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The Great American LOVE

1972

Images

The Great American LOVE, a 144 inch square painting consisting of four panels spelling LOVE, each consisting of an individual letter in white against a red and blue ground. The top left panel if the letter L, the top right panel the tilted letter O, the bottom left panel the letter V, and the bottom right panel the letter E.

The Great American LOVE

1972

Oil on canvas

Overall: 144 × 144 in. (365.8 × 365.8 cm)

Each panel: 72 × 72 in. (182.9 × 182.9 cm) (four panels)

 

Photo: Courtesy of Sotheby's, New York; Artwork: © Morgan Art Foundation Ltd./Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY

Installation view, Robert Indiana: New Paintings and Sculpture, Galerie Denise René, New York, November 22–December 30, 1972. Left to right, LOVE (1966), The Great American LOVE (1972), ONE (1972), ART (1972), ART (1972), and, on the rear right wall, part of the Decade Autoportrait series covering the years 1961 through 1965,  

Installation view, Robert Indiana: New Paintings and Sculpture, Galerie Denise René, New York, November 22–December 30, 1972. Left to right, LOVE (1966), The Great American LOVE (1972), ONE (1972), ART (1972), ART (1972), and, on the rear right wall, part of the Decade Autoportrait series covering the years 1961 through 1965

 

Photo: Hans Namuth. Courtesy Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona © 1991 Hans Namuth Estate

Description

The Great American LOVE is one of Indiana’s largest LOVE paintings, and one of a group of LOVE paintings executed in the colors of the American flag. The artist also created a smaller group of LOVE paintings in the colors of the German flag (Die Deutsche Liebe).

The work consists of four panels, each containing one of the four letters spelling love. When it was first exhibited, in Robert Indiana: New Paintings and Sculpture at the Galerie Denise René, New York (November 22–December 30, 1972), the panels were arranged in a horizontal configuration, for a traditional reading order of left to right. Since its inclusion in the Robert Indiana, at the University Art Museum, University of Texas at Austin, the panels have been displayed in the stacked LOVE format.