Robert Indiana is an American artist known for his famous Love and Number paintings, sculptures and statues, that marked him as one of the central figures of the American Pop Art movement.
Since Indiana first began stencilling words onto his assembled wood sculptures in the 1950s, he has called himself a ‘sign painter’. This, for him, suggests the humble origins of his artistic activity in the American work ethic and indicates his fascination with the use of words in signs. He drew inspiration from commercial signs in America, claiming, “There are more signs than trees in America. There are more signs than leaves. So I think of myself as a painter of American landscape.”
Taking the Roman numerals and letters from American signs, Indiana created a body of artwork that explored American identity, personal history and the power of abstraction and language. This unique style captured the spirit of the 1960s and 1970s and his Love stamp became one of the most widely distributed Pop Art images ever, with over 300 million copies issued.
Over the last 60 years, Indiana’s sign-like paintings and sculptures have been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions around the world.
