3635 - ROBERT INDIANA

ROBERT INDIANA (New Castle 1928–2018 Vinalhaven) Heliotherapy Love. 1995. Colour screenprint. 137/300. Signed and dated lower right in pencil: R Indiana '95. Verso with the publisher’s, printer’s and artist’s copyright stamps. Image dimensions 93.9 × 94.3 cm on 4-ply rag Museum Board 101.6 × 101.9 cm. Published by Donald J. Christal, Los Angeles. Printed by Brand X Editions, New York City. In his 1995 colour screenprint ‘Heliotherapy Love’, Robert Indiana transforms perhaps the most universal of all emotions into a visual emblem that is at once bold and sophisticated. The word LOVE fills the entire picture plane, making one thing unmistakably clear: there is little room for restraint here, and everything is writ large. The red letters interlock with areas of blue and green, while a luminous yellow border encloses the composition. The colours are vivid, the contours precise, and the forms reduced to their essentials. Indiana draws on the visual immediacy of Pop Art. A handful of letters, four colours and a commanding presence are all that is needed. Yet the composition is by no means as simple as it first appears. The large O in the upper part of the image becomes a circular focal point, enclosing a diagonal green form. The V draws the eye dynamically downwards, while the E, with its tiered horizontal bars, introduces a sense of rhythm and order. The letters convey a message, but they are also geometric forms that press against and complement one another, coming together in a composition charged with tension. The title ‘Heliotherapy Love’ adds another layer of meaning. Heliotherapy is the therapeutic use of sunlight. The radiant yellow border and intense colours therefore evoke light, warmth and energy. The work is closely related to Indiana’s celebrated LOVE motif, which he began developing in 1964 and which gained international recognition in 1965 through a Christmas card produced by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Indiana created an unmistakable emblem that bridges typography, geometric abstraction and the visual language of commerce. Drawing on the clarity of advertising lettering and the immediate legibility of popular symbols, he invests them with emotional and social significance. An everyday word becomes an image that can be read in an instant yet remains firmly lodged in the memory. The colour screenprinting technique reinforces this approach. It allows for precise contours and even fields of colour, combining artistic design with the principle of serial reproduction. The fact that LOVE has itself become a symbol recognised around the world demonstrates how successfully Indiana transcended the boundary between high art and everyday culture.