The Calumet, 1961. Photo: Courtesy of the Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University; Artwork: © The Robert Indiana Legacy Initiative/Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
Indiana's The Calumet (1961) was included in New Directions in American Painting, a landmark show organized by the Poses Institute of Fine Arts, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts. The exhibition illustrated the principal tendencies of new artistic styles (classified as "new realism" and including assemblage, Pop art, and new orders of abstraction) against the background of the new work of the pioneering Abstract Expressionist generation.
The exhibition traveled to the Isaac Delgado Museum of Art, New Orleans, February 7–March 8, 1964; the Atlanta Art Association, March 18–April 22, 1964; The J. B. Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky, May 4–June 7, 1964; the Art Museum of Indiana University, Bloomington, June 22–September 20, 1964; Washington University in Saint Louis, October 5–30, 1964; and the Detroit Institute of Arts, November 10–December 6, 1964.