LOVE 1970

Robert Indiana’s LOVE sculpture is one of the most iconic and copied designs of the 1960s. Indiana’s inspiration for the LOVE series was his father. Indiana was commissioned by MoMA in 1965 to design a card, just around the time of his father’s death. The colors stem from Indiana’s memory of the Phillips 66 gas station logo where his father worked. There are several copies of the LOVE sculpture in other cities, and the design was made into an eight-cent US postage stamp in 1973 for Valentine’s Day. He even repurposed his design in 2008, creating HOPE in support of Barack Obama. Robert Indiana, a Pop Artist, was part of the Coenties Slip Group during the 1950s. His work consists of drawings, paintings, and sculpture, all influenced by typography. His sign, EAT, was on display at the 1964 World’s Fair. That sculpture was based on his mother’s last words to him; she asked if he had enough to eat.