Robert Indiana
Robert Indiana (b. Robert Clark, 1928) is an American artist known for his bold, iconic imagery associated with the Pop Art movement of the 1960s. After several years of study at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Skowhegan School and Edinburgh College of Art, Indiana settled in New York in 1954, where he developed his hard-edge style using typography as the subject for most of his paintings and sculptures. Indiana is known for graphic, text-based works featuring numbers and short words, such as EAT, HUG, and DIE, that he worked into paintings, multi-media sculpture and prints. In 2008, Indiana used his LOVE image as the basis for a new work substituting the word HOPE, using it as the image for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, in which the artist raised $1,000,000 for Obama. A stainless steel sculptural version was unveiled in Denver outside of the 2008 Democratic Convention.
Indiana is regularly shown in museums, including three recent solo shows. “The Essential Robert Indiana” at the Indianapolis Museum of Art and “Robert Indiana: The Mother of Us All” at the McNay Art Museum as well as 2013’s solo New York show, “Robert Indiana: Beyond LOVE” at the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Indiana is regularly shown in museums, including three recent solo shows. “The Essential Robert Indiana” at the Indianapolis Museum of Art and “Robert Indiana: The Mother of Us All” at the McNay Art Museum as well as 2013’s solo New York show, “Robert Indiana: Beyond LOVE” at the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Biography
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2021
- Robert Indiana, Ben Brown Fine Arts, Hong Kong, Central, Hong Kong, Hong Kong
- Robert Indiana: The Hartley Elegies, Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine, USA
2020
- Robert Indiana: A Legacy Of Love, McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas, USA
2018
- Robert Indiana: A Sculpture Retrospective, Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, Florida, USA
- Robert Indiana: A Sculpture Retrospective, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, USA
- Robert Indiana, Kasmin Gallery, New York (515 W 27th Str), Chelsea, New York, USA
2017
- Robert Indiana: Works from the Collection of Herbert Lust, Sotheby’s New York, Upper East Side, New York, USA
- Robert Indiana: Placeholder, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine, USA
- Robert Indiana. Retrospective in Locarno, Galerie Gmurzynska, St. Moritz, Locarno, Switzerland
2016
- Robert Indiana: Now and Then, Artis-Naples, The Baker Museum, Naples, Florida, USA
- Robert Indiana: The Power of Words, Rosenbaum Contemporary, Boca Raton, Boca Raton, Florida, USA
- Robert Indiana: More Than Words, Long Sharp Gallery, Indianapolis, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
- Robert Indiana: Now and Then, Bates College, Museum of Art, Lewiston, Maine, USA
- Robert Indiana: To the 50th Anniversary of Love, The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
- Robert Indiana: To Russia with Love, Galerie Gmurzynska, Zürich (Paradeplatz), Zürich, Switzerland
- Robert Indiana, Galleria d’Arte Maggiore, Bologna, Bologna, Italy
2015
- Robert Indiana: Sign Paintings 1960-65, Craig F. Starr Associates, Upper East Side, New York, USA
2014
- Robert Indiana, Galerie Gmurzynska, Zug, Zug, Switzerland
- The Essential Robert Indiana, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Newfields, Idaville, Indiana, USA
- Robert Indiana: Beyond LOVE, McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas, USA
- Robert Indiana’s Hartley Elegies, McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas, USA
- Robert Indiana: The Mother Of Us All, McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas, USA
2013
- Signs from the Sixties: Robert Indiana’s Decade, The Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, New Hampshire, USA
- Robert Indiana: Beyond Love, Whitney Museum of American Art, Greenwich Village, New York, USA
- Robert Indiana: Decade ★ Autoportrait, de Sarthe Gallery, Hong Kong, Southern, Hong Kong, Hong Kong
- Indiana by the Numbers, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Newfields, Idaville, Indiana, USA
2012
- Robert Indiana: Sculptures, Waddington Custot, Mayfair, London, UK
2009
- Robert Indiana: Love and Hope, Rosenbaum Contemporary, Boca Raton, Boca Raton, Florida, USA
2008
- Robert Indiana, Hard Edge, Kasmin Gallery, New York (293 10th Av), Chelsea, New York, USA
Selected Group Exhibitions
2021
- The Great Graphic Boom. Pop art on paper, Kunsthalle zu Kiel, Kiel, Germany
- Pop Power From Warhol to Koons: Masterworks From the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation, Yellowstone Art Museum, Billings, Montana, USA
- Autumn Bluechip Exhibition, Gormleys Fine Art, Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
- Oh, Honey… A Queer Reading of the Collection, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
- Word Play, David Benrimon Fine Art, Midtown, New York, USA
- Soup to Nuts: Pop Art Prints from the CMA Collection, The Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, South Carolina, USA
- Summer After Noon, Gallery Neptune & Brown, Washington D.C., District Of Columbia, USA
- Phyllis Bramson, Robert Indiana & Mayumi Lake, William Brincka Gallery, Lubeznik Center for the Arts, Michigan City, Indiana, USA
- Contemporary & Modern Masters, Gormleys Fine Art, Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
- Spring Blue Chip Exhibition, Gormleys Fine Art, Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
- Language Arts, Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio, USA
- Between the Earth and Sky, Kasmin Gallery, New York (509 W 27th Str), Chelsea, New York, USA
2020
- Uncommon Language, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
- Picasso to Hockney: Modern Art on Stage, The Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, Ohio, USA
- Spirit of Independence, The Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA
- Rethink America, David Benrimon Fine Art, Midtown, New York, USA
- Hyundai 50 Part II, Gallery Hyundai, Jongro-gu, Seoul, South Korea
- POP Power From Warhol To Koons, Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA
- Pop on Paper: From Warhol to Lichtenstein, Kulturforum, Berlin, Germany
- 91-DIVOC, Zemack Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv, Israel
- Art of the Stage: Picasso to Hockney, Museum of Fine Arts, Saint Petersburg, St. Petersburg, Florida, USA
2019
- C’era una volta Sergio Leone, Museo Dell’Ara Pacis, Rome, Italy
- Select Works From The Alan Groh-Buzz Miller Collection, The Fralin Museum of Art, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA
- Sedecim XVI, Woodward Gallery, Soho, New York, USA
- Brand X: 40 Years, Pace Prints, 26th Street, Chelsea, New York, USA
- Accrochage, Galerie Boisséree, Cologne, Germany
- Otherwise, The Fralin Museum of Art, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA
- Word and Image, Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
- Contemporary Master Prints, Augen Gallery (Desoto Building), Portland, Oregon, USA
- Latest International Blue Chip, Gormleys Fine Art, Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
- Uncovered, Bates College, Museum of Art, Lewiston, Maine, USA
- Modern & Contemporary Prints, Long Sharp Gallery, Indianapolis, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
- Summer 2019, Ikon Ltd., Santa Monica, California, USA
- American Icons, Opera Gallery, Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
- Bal Harbour, Rosenbaum Contemporary, Bal Harbour, Florida, USA
- Emphatic: American Painting from the Collection, Krannert Art Museum and Kinkead Pavilion, Champaign, Illinois, USA
- Love and Other Crimes, Maddox Gallery, London (Maddox Street), Mayfair, London, UK
2018
- Charity, Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg (Villa Kast), Salzburg, Austria
- Shiny & Bright, Long Sharp Gallery, New York, Midtown, New York, USA
- The National Arts Club 120th Anniversary Exhibition, National Arts Club, Gramercy Park, New York, USA
- Rosenbaum Contemporary, Rosenbaum Contemporary, Bal Harbour, Florida, USA
- Iconic, Woodward Gallery, Soho, New York, USA
- For Freedoms: Citizenship and Art, Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, Alabama, USA
- Infinite Grace 2, Waterfall Gallery, Upper East Side, New York, USA
- Group Exhibition, Rosenbaum Contemporary, Bal Harbour, Florida, USA
- Accrochage, Galerie Boisséree, Cologne, Germany
- Robert Indiana & Martin Puryear: Art in Dialogue, The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, Florida International University, Miami, Florida, USA
- Group Exhibition, Rosenbaum Contemporary, Bal Harbour, Florida, USA
- A Luta Continua. The Sylvio Perlstein Collection, Hauser & Wirth, New York, 22nd Street, Chelsea, New York, USA
- Indiana★Warhol Spring, Woodward Gallery, Soho, New York, USA
- American Icons, Opera Gallery, Paris, 8e, Paris, France
- Neuerwerbungen Frühjahr 2018, Gallery Ludorff, Düsseldorf, Germany
- Rosenbaum Contemporary: Bal Harbour, Rosenbaum Contemporary, Bal Harbour, Florida, USA
- The New Art: A Milestone Collection Fifty Years Later, Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA
- 20in18, Woodward Gallery, Soho, New York, USA
- Rosenbaum Contemporary: Bal Harbour, Rosenbaum Contemporary, Bal Harbour, Florida, USA
- Selections from the Permanent Collection, Wiregrass Museum of Art, Dothan, Alabama, USA
- Rosenbaum Contemporary: Bal Harbour, Rosenbaum Contemporary, Bal Harbour, Florida, USA
2017
- Picturing Mississippi, Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, Mississippi, USA
- Greatest Hits, Kunstpalais Erlangen, Erlangen, Germany
- Selected Works, Galerie Thomas / Thomas Modern, Munich, Germany
- The Painters and the Printer, Mana Contemporary Jersey City, Jersey City, New Jersey, USA
- From Surface To Space: 100 Years of Sculpture, Relief and Collage, Galerie Gmurzynska, Zurich (Talstrasse), Zürich, Switzerland
- Gold, Opera Gallery, Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- Pop Art Prints, Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Miami, Florida, USA
- Pop Art Prints, Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Miami, Florida, USA
- American Sculpture: Beyond Limits, Sotheby’s London, London, UK
- Top of the pop, Zemack Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv, Israel
- Group Exhibition, Rosenbaum Contemporary, Bal Harbour, Florida, USA
- The Monaco Masters Show, Opera Gallery, Monaco, Monaco, Monaco
- Serial Intent, Akron Art Museum, Akron, Ohio, USA
- Art on the Front Lines, Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, Soho, New York, USA
- Found in America: Chamberlain, Flavin, Indiana, Waddington Custot, Mayfair, London, UK
- Between Land and Sea: Artists of the Coenties Slip, The Menil Collection, Museum District, Houston, Texas, USA
- Hommage à Picasso, Robilant+Voena, St. Moritz, St. Moritz, Switzerland
- Pop Art in Print, Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum, Cheltenham, UK
- Women, Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine, USA
2016
- Peace, Love, Hope & Harmony, Long Sharp Gallery, Indianapolis, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
- Forms/ Shapes, Long Sharp Gallery, Indianapolis, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
- Pop, Punk, New Wave & the Counterculture, Augen Gallery (Desoto Building), Portland, Oregon, USA
- POP! Prints from the Permanent Collection, Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, Purchase, New York, USA
- Love: Contemporary Art Meets Amour, Chiostro del Bramante, Rome, Italy
- Masters of Distinction, Opera Gallery, Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
- Signature Signs in American Pop, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri, USA
- Group Exhibition, Rosenbaum Contemporary, Bal Harbour, Florida, USA
- 20th Century American Masters, Galerie Gmurzynska, St. Moritz, St. Moritz, Switzerland
- Pop Art Prints, The Mennello Museum of American Art, Orlando, Florida, USA
- Silver Linings, Long Sharp Gallery, Indianapolis, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
- Rosenbaum Contemporary, Rosenbaum Contemporary, Bal Harbour, Florida, USA
- Spring Selections, Rosenbaum Contemporary, Boca Raton, Boca Raton, Florida, USA
- Patriotic Prints, Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, Alabama, USA
2015
- Cheekwood POP, Cheekwood Estate & Gardens, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
- Ludwig Goes Pop + The East Side Story, Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest, Hungary
- Impressionist & Modern Exhibition, Waterhouse & Dodd, New York (Madison Av, Closed), Upper East Side, New York, USA
- LA / MA: ’60s Pop from Both Coasts, The Rose Art Museum, Waltham, Massachusetts, USA
- Apparitions: Frottages and Rubbings from 1860 to Now, The Menil Collection, Museum District, Houston, Texas, USA
- European and American Pop Art, 1955-1975, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
- Rosenbaum Contemporary Bal Harbour, Rosenbaum Contemporary, Bal Harbour, Florida, USA
- Rock, Paper – Lithographs from the Permanent Collection, Part II, Snite Museum of Art, Notre Dame, Indiana, USA
- Maine Collects: Treasures from Maine’s Private Collections, Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine, USA
- Pop Art in America, Foosaner Art Museum, Melbourne, Florida, USA
- Directors’ Cut: Selections from the Maine Art Museum Trail, Portland Museum of Art, Maine, Portland, Maine, USA
- Boisserée Goes Pop, Galerie Boisséree, Cologne, Germany
- America Is Hard to See, Whitney Museum of American Art, Greenwich Village, New York, USA
- Out of the Vault: 25 Years of Collecting, Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn, New York, USA
- BLACK + BLUE, KM Fine Arts, Chicago, Near North Side, Chicago, Illinois, USA
- Recent Acquisitions, Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine, USA
- Ludwig Goes Pop, MUMOK, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna, Austria
- Color, Shape and Light, Galerie Proarta, Zürich, Switzerland
- 75 Gifts for 75 Years, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
- Under Pressure: Contemporary Prints from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and his Family Foundation, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, Eugene, Oregon, USA
2014
- Innovations in Painting: Selections from the Collection, Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, North Carolina, USA
- Pop Departures, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, USA
- Art=Text=Art: Private languages/Public Systems, UB Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, USA
- Pop Sculpture – Pop Culture, Leila Heller Gallery, 57th Street, 57th Street, New York, USA
- Permanency, Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, Soho, New York, USA
- Pop Art from the Anderson Collection, Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA
- Art Multiples, 313 Art Project, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, South Korea
- ACCROCHAGE, Galerie Boisséree, Cologne, Germany
- The Crystal Palace, Rachel Uffner Gallery, Lower East Side, New York, USA
- Encountering Maine, Bates College, Museum of Art, Lewiston, Maine, USA
- Standing in the Shadows of Love: The Aldrich Collection 1964–1974, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut, USA
- Love, Wilhelm Hack Museum, Ludwigshafen Am Rhein, Germany
- Pop Art Prints, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Downtown, Washington D.C., District Of Columbia, USA
- Group Exhibition of European and International Paintings and Sculptures, Waddington Custot, Mayfair, London, UK
- Pennsylvania Pop, The Annual Demuth Invitational, Demuth Museum, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA
2013
- Voices of Hope: Celebrating Robert Indiana, Rosenbaum Contemporary, Boca Raton, Boca Raton, Florida, USA
- Correspondents of Ray Johnson, Krannert Art Museum and Kinkead Pavilion, Champaign, Illinois, USA
- Colourful. Modern Prints from the Kemp Collection, Museum Kunstpalast Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
- Pop Art Design, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden
- Artist of the gallery, Galerie Boisséree, Cologne, Germany
- A Presentation of Art Treasures, Deborah Colton Gallery, Houston, Texas, USA
- The Pop Object: The Still Life Tradition in Pop Art, Acquavella Galleries, New York, Upper East Side, New York, USA
- OP + POP: Experiments by American Artists Starting in the 1960’s, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany
- Now Here is also Nowhere: Part II, Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA
- BANNERS, Galerie Gmurzynska, St. Moritz, St. Moritz, Switzerland
2012
- The Declaration of Independence: The Stone Copy and the Kent Bicentennial Portfolio, The Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky, USA
- Pop and the Sixties, MUMOK, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna, Austria
2011
- Post Pop, Gow Langsford Gallery, Lorne Street, Auckland, New Zealand
2010
- Popular: Brands, Symbols, Icons, Galerie Thomas / Thomas Modern, Munich, Germany
- Contemporary Works from the Collection, Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine, USA
- Sculpture, Waddington Custot, Mayfair, London, UK
- Modern Master Works, Scream London, Fitzrovia, London, UK
- Real and Abstract: Contemporary Art from the Farnsworth, Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine, USA
- The State of Printmaking since 1940, Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine, USA
2009
- Five Decades of Passion. Part Two: The Founding of the Center, 1989-1991, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Long Island City, New York, USA
- Pop My Cherry, Patricia Low Contemporary, Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
- Wordscapes: Text as Image in Contemporary Art, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
- Master Pieces, Manifest, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
- Robert Indiana And The Star Of Hope, Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine, USA
- Aspects Of Pop Art, Galerie Gmurzynska, St. Moritz, St. Moritz, Switzerland
- Art In The Park: At The Hotel Baur Au Lac, Galerie Gmurzynska, St. Moritz, St. Moritz, Switzerland
- Aspects Of Pop Art, Galerie Gmurzynska, St. Moritz, St. Moritz, Switzerland
- Winter Season 2008/2009, Galerie Gmurzynska, St. Moritz, St. Moritz, Switzerland
2008
- Sign/Age: Signs Signs Everywhere A Sign, Armand Bartos Fine Art, Upper East Side, New York, USA
2007
- TEXT as ART: From the 1960s Onward, El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, Texas, USA
- Marilyn Monroe Life as a Legend, Sioux City Art Center, Sioux City, Iowa, USA