In the history of art there are artists who are remembered for a single artistic production, somehow overlooking the different expressions of their creativity. This is the case of Robert Indiana who due to one of his icons   has become part of collective imagination with one single figure, able to influence heavily the spectator’s perception. In brief, Robert Indiana is for everyone Love. That writing in capital letters positioned in a square with the tilted letter O, declined in thousands of ways, colours and materials.
An icon that not only has entered the academic world, but which holds a relevant position also within the art market. Indeed, the American artist’s personal record at auction was reached thanks to a “Love” sculpture dating from 1966, when on 14th November 2007 Christie’s New York sold this work for 3,513,000 dollars, against an initial estimate included between 1,000,000 and 1,500,000 dollars. Always in 2007, another “Love” sculpture, in this case a red version, achieved a rather substantial quotation at Sotheby’s Paris: from an estimate of 700-900 thousand euros, it sold for 838,650 euros.
Love is nowadays one of the most widespread images in the world and its notoriety is such to have unfairly overshadowed the artist’s remaining production. Love has become over the years a symbol whose meaning goes beyond its original reference to a pacifist movement of the sixties, taking on a more universal meaning. Robert Indiana’s work reflects the US culture in all its aspects: its history, literature, social, anthropological and visual culture. Its style is characterized by geometrical shapes, vivid edges and, in the case of paintings, bright colours and a  strong graphic taste.
A commonplace that may at last be disproved through the most important exhibition ever to be organized in Italy, for which a gallery of international fame such as the Gmurzynska has decided to exert itself, presenting from 21st June to the end of September, in the most prestigious Milanese spaces - Piazza Duomo, Piazzetta Reale, Piazza della Scala and Piazza Duca d’Aosta – monumental sculptures by Indiana, as well as a selection of paintings in the “Sala delle otto colonne” of Palazzo Reale.
In occasion of an interview to the “New York Times” in December 2002, Indiana said: “There are more signs than trees in America. There are more signs than leaves. For this reason I think of myself as a painter of the American landscape”. Indeed, each one of Indiana’s works condenses within it a multitude of signs and meanings. Such features are particularly evident in the case of the painting “Decade Autoportrait 1968”, dating from 1972, which will be on display at Palazzo Reale.
During his career Robert Indiana has also nurtured a passion for typographic elements. A passion that is clearly expressed in the works of the Milanese exhibition. Among these in particular a series of three-dimensional figures – representative also of his enchantment for numbers – in corten steel or glazed aluminium. Indeed, the public can already observe sculptures in Vittorio Emanuele high street, which are the first elements of a series of ten numbers that will be completed at nighttime according to the requirements dictated by the size of such works and by their delicacy: four occupy the wagon of a truck. In the centre of the regional capital of Lombardy, and precisely in Piazzetta Reale and Piazza della Scala, other two of the artist’s works will be placed: a wall composed of the word Love repeated various times and Amor, the Latin version of the previous work.
Besides these works by Indiana installed in the public areas of Milan, the Italian public will be able to visit the exhibition housed by the Pac – Pavilion of Contemporary Art – from 4th July to 14th September 2008, which will follow up the themes anticipated by the works in outdoor places and will allow to retrace Robert Indiana’s whole career through paintings and sculptures that date from the fifties up to the first years of the new millennium. It will be the first occasion in Italy to appreciate the complexity of an artist whose oeuvre has been unfairly overshadowed by the fame of Love. (translated by Giorgina Arcuri)