Label Type
Cultural/Historical ContextLabel
"Indiana was born Robert Clark in New Castle, Indiana and spent his first 17 years in and around Indianapolis. He graduated from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1953, and received a scholarship to the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. The following year he attended the University of Edinburgh on a George Brown Traveling Fellowship. After finishing school, Indiana lived and worked in New York City. He currently lives on the island of Vinalhaven, off the coast of Maine.
Like other Pop artists, Indiana was captivated by the appearance of a single word in highway signs and commercial advertisements. Among Pop artists in the early 60s who isolated one word ‘Art’ was the most popular. Indiana is best known, however, for his LOVE sculpture and painting, both permanently displayed at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. To Robert Indiana, Pop art ""is the American dream, optimistic, generous, and naïve."