Robert Indiana - Contemporary Art Part I New York Thursday, November 13, 2008 | Phillips

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  • Provenance


    Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York

  • Exhibited

    NewYork, Paul Kasmin Gallery, Robert Indiana: Peace Paintings, April 21 – May 29, 2004; London,Waddington Galleries, Robert Indiana: Paintings and Sculpture — 1961 – 2003, September 23 – October 23, 2004

  • Literature

    Paul Kasmin Gallery, ed., Indiana: Peace Paintings, New York, 2004, p. 13 (illustrated); J. Wilmerding, J. Pissarro, R. Pincus-Witten, P. Halley, Robert Indiana The Artist and His Work 1955 – 2005, New York, 2006, pp. 224 – 225 (illustrated)

  • Catalogue Essay

    Synonymously linked with the 1960s peace movement through his Love Motif, Robert Indiana again received much attention with concurrent exhibitions in 2004. Two New York galleries – Paul Kasmin and C&M Arts – exhibited a recent series of the artist’s oil paintings, while jointly sponsoring an installation of Indiana number sculptures on the medians of Park Avenue in Manhattan. The bold canvases of the Peace Paintings reference politics of the past and present.
    Robert Indiana revisits imagery executed in his 1971 Yield Brother within the 2004 Peace Paintings. Four peace signs are encircled with long ends facing towards the center of the composition. Horizontal and vertical axes create a clear geometric arrangement and a sense of immediacy.Text of the northern points of each circle, such as “hoot,” “whoop,” and “holler” support a claim of urgency.The peace paintings hold the voice of either soldiers or protestors – depending upon interpretation. Reference is evident in the color palette and hard edged geometry of Mondrian; yet the most blatant allusion is to the themes of peace especially present in the minds ofAmericans since September 11, 2001.
    Pop artist Robert Indiana, born Robert Clark in New Castle, Indiana in 1928, moved to New York City in 1954. Blending imagery derived from commercial art and ideas of existentialism, the artist’s works eventually approached what he referred to as “sculptural poems.” Indiana currently resides and works in the island town of Vinalhaven, Maine.The artist’s nationality is relevant in his works, in reference he quotes of his priorities, “Only that I am American. Only that I am of my generation, too young for regional realism, surrealism, magic realism and abstract expressionism and too old to return to the figure. Not wishing to unsettle the shades of Homer, Eakins, Ryder, Sheeler, Hopper, Marin, et al., I propose to be an American painter, not an internationalist speaking some glib Esperanto; possibly I intend to be a Yankee.” (Robert Indiana: Retrospective 1958 - 1998, Nice, 1998, p.10)

13

Four Diamond Peace (Blue)

2003

Oil on canvas in four parts.

67 7/8 x 67 7/8 in. (172.4 x 172.4 cm).

Stamped “Indiana 03” on the reverse.

Estimate
$400,000 - 600,000 

Contemporary Art Part I

13 Nov 2008, 7pm
New York