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The Ninth Love Cross

2001

Images

The Ninth Love Cross is a cross shaped painting comprised of five panels and measuring 108 by 108 inches overall. Each panel is square shaped with a light purple ground and a circle containing a light blue numeral nine with a yellow outlined red ring containing text. The background of the circle in the central panel is pink with a yellow star, and the text in the ring is Love repeated six times. The background of the top panel's circle is vertical light purple and red stripes, and the text reads "Clamshell Alley The Sail Loft." The background of the right panel's circle is diagonal light purple and light pink stripes, and the text in the ring reads "Liebe Eros Ahava Lust." The background of the bottom panel's circle is horizontal light purple and red stripes, and the ring's text reads "Vinalhaven The Start of Hope." The background of the left panel's circle is diagonal light pink and light purple stripes, and the text in the ring reads "Agape Amore Amor and Amour."

The Ninth Love Cross

2001

Oil on canvas

Five panels, overall: 108 × 108 in. (274.3 × 274.3 cm), cross

Each panel: 36 × 36 in. (91.4 × 91.4 cm)

 

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

Indiana's sculpture studio, the sail loft on Clamshell Alley in Vinalhaven, Maine

Indiana's sculpture studio, the sail loft on Clamshell Alley in Vinalhaven, Maine

Description

The Ninth Love Cross is one of three cross-shaped canvases completed by Indiana, along with The Demuth American Dream No. 5 (1963) and LOVE Cross (1968). It was painted in 2001, the same year as The Ninth American Dream, the final canvas in Indiana’s American Dream series.

Love is the theme for which Indiana is most widely recognized, and one which had great personal meaning to him. As in The Ninth American Dream, the central panel consists of the numeral “9” within a circle whose outer ring contains the word “Love,” repeated six times. The theme is continued in the panels to the left and right, whose outer rings contain different translations (amour, amor, amore, liebe, ahava) and types (agape, eros, lust) of love.

The top and bottom panels reference Indiana’s properties in Vinalhaven, Maine, where he lived from 1978 until his death in 2018. The sail loft on Clamshell Alley was Indiana’s sculpture studio, and the Star of Hope, built in 1883 for the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, was his home.

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