Robert Indiana: Sculpture 1958-2018 at Yorkshire Sculpture Park
Maja Lorkowska, Exhibitions Editor
This spring, Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP) will be home to the first major UK exhibition of work from the American artist: Robert Indiana: Sculpture 1958-2018.
This colourful display of the Pop artist’s work will take place both indoors and outside in the landscape. Presenting 56 pieces, six of which will be outdoors, the exhibition will be a complete representation of Indiana’s oeuvre and the nuanced thinking behind his practice.
A leading member of the Pop Art movement, throughout his 60-year career Indiana explored a variety of subjects, from the American dream and its more sinister aspects, to the timeless themes of love and acceptance, especially in relation to movements against racism and discrimination against LGBT+ communities.
While working at his studio in Coenties Slip, Indiana was part of a community of notable artists, including Ellsworth Kelly, Agnes Martin, Cy Twombly and James Rosenquist. Words are undeniably important in his work: short text, phrases and numbers are a key motif throughout the years in both the two-dimensional and sculptural works. Indiana studied typography whilst he was a student at the University of Edinburgh and creating ‘signs’ with the use of words and numbers became central to his practice.
The lawn outside the Underground Gallery will be filled with colourful, aluminium sculptures ONE Through ZERO (The Ten Numbers) (1980–2001). The numbers symbolise the stages of human life, from birth to death – Indiana was fascinated with numbers and the way in which they can transcend many languages. In his words: “Numbers fill my life, they fill my life even more than love. We are immersed in numbers from the moment we’re born.”
Robert Indiana: Sculpture 1958-2018 will take visitors through earlier relief and collage works, incorporating found objects from the area around his studio, to larger sculptures and paintings created later on in his career. Look out for the most notable works, which include: Mississippi (1965), from the Confederacy series which spoke out against the atrocities committed against the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 60s; and Love Rising (The Black and White Love) which was dedicated to Dr Martin Luther King and first exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art, New York’s show In Honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Of course, you will also be able to encounter the artist’s most recognisable, iconic work LOVE (Red Blue Green) (1966–1998) and admire it against the backdrop of woodland and green hills of the park.
