Installation view of Robert Indiana: Wood Works, National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., May 1–September 3, 1984. Left to right, Ge (1960), Bar (1960), Hole (1960), Two (1962), Chief (1962), and Virgin (1960). Photograph Archives, Smithsonian American Art Museum
Wood Works: Constructions by Robert Indiana, at the National Museum of American Art (now the Smithsonian American Art Museum), Washington, D.C., was the first museum exhibition devoted to Indiana’s wood constructions. Indiana completed two new constructions in time for the show, Sun (1981–84) and Five (1984), the latter subsequently donated to the museum by the artist because it was conceived of as a companion to the painting The Figure 5 (1963), which was already in the museum’s permanent collection. Several other works were shown for the first time: Bay (1981), Triptych (1960), and two works from the 1960s that had been recently completed, Gem (1962/1984) and Die (1962/1984).
The exhibition traveled to the Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine, October 2–28, 1984.