Robert Indiana "LOVE" Donated to Huntington
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| Rockefeller Center installation of Robert Indiana's LOVE, 1966 (design) and 1999 (fabricated). The Huntington sculpture is from this edition. Image courtesy of The Robert Indiana Legacy Initiative. ©2026 The Robert Indiana Legacy Initiative LLC / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY |
Robert Indiana (1928–2018) devised the distinctive, four-letter rendering in a 1964 drawing. Art historian Susan Ryan traces the idea further to an earlier drawing of the word "FUCK" on two lines, with the U slanted. Indiana made that drawing after his breakup from Ellsworth Kelly. The slanted U is said to have represented emotional vulnerability.
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| Museum of Modern Art holiday card, 1965 |
A small, painted version of LOVE became the basis of the Museum of Modern Art's holiday card in 1965. Its RGB color scheme was inspired by Kelly's paintings of a couple years earlier. In May 1966 Indiana produced the first LOVE sculpture in aluminum. That original was just 12 inches high. It has since been editioned (and pirated) in various sizes, materials, and languages. The 12-ft. size of the Kohl gift is the largest.
Wikipedia lists thirty-some versions in the U.S., many as public art outside a museum context. There's a 12-ft Corten steel version at Newfields (Indianapolis), and a 6-ft. cast, also Corten, at Crystal Bridges.
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| Corten steel-finish LOVE, 1999, at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Ark. |
Indiana didn't love LOVE. He was annoyed at how it overshadowed everything else he did. Pirated versions were legion and difficult to prevent or prosecute. In the broader culture, LOVE was read as an anodyne logo for the 60s "Love Generation"—and as the epitome of "Pop art," a term that rankled Indiana.
Despite relatively ample supply, several LOVE sculptures have gone for seven figures. Christie's sold one for $4,114,500 in 2011. The Huntington sculpture is from an edition of five, with two artist's proofs.
At the Huntington LOVE augments a small group of New York Pop and Minimalist sculpture, such as an Andy Warhol Brillo Box (1964) and Tony Smith's 1966 bronze For W.A. In its outdoor setting, it will also invite comparison to Henry Huntington's collection of Rococo garden sculptures on the theme of love.
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| Attributed to Ange-Jacques Gabriel, Temple of Love, about 1765, in Huntington Rose Garden |
Comments
No wonder Kelly broke up with Indiana.
--- J. Garcin
See Kelly's "Window" paintings.
Through them, Kelly pursued an idea about art that was directly influenced by Duchamp, Kelly's so-called "already made."
On that note, the Glenstone catalogue for their recent Kelly exhibition is excellent. The catalogue includes an essay by Alex Da Corte. Good intro to all three artists (Duchamp+Kelly = Da Corte).
--- J. Garcin
But first back to the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Akron Art Museum (1850 to the present), the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College, and the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown...if I can afford the gas.