Robert Indiana

(American, 1928-2018)

Numbers (the complete portfolio)

, 1968

screenprints on Arches paper

each signed, dated, and numbered 74/125 in pencil

23 1/8 x 19 1/8 inches.

Property from the Collection of Dr. Mark List Cohen and Jane Cohen, Atlanta, Georgia

Provenance:

Collection of Vera List, New York

Thence by descent to the present owner

These numbers are a celebration. I mean them to be a celebration. Whether they are a celebration of the phases of life or a celebration of some kind of passage through time, they are a visual celebration. They are meant as a real feast to the eye.

-from Arthur C. Carr “The Reminiscences of Robert Indiana.” New York, November 1965. Arthur C. Carr papers; Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library.

Perhaps best known for his iconic Love imagery, Robert Indiana, born Robert Clark of New Castle, Indiana, turned to numbers as a theme continually throughout his career. His interest in numbers can be credited in part to the sheer number of times that he moved in his childhood: twenty-one times before he reached the age of seventeen. This constant changing of addresses was seminal,prompting him to note later in life, ‘our very lives are structured around numbers . . . everything we do is reckoned on numbers.’ Numbers began to appear in Indiana’s work in the early 1950’s stenciled within larger compositions, but it wasn’t until the early 1960’s that he began to employ numbers as a main theme in his work.

The style for Numbers was taken from an old printer’s calendar that Indiana found in his studio on Coenties Slip. He found this studio early in his career with the help of his then lover, Ellsworth Kelly. From the late 1950’s to the early 1960’s, Coenties Slip was home to the studios of Kelly and Indiana as well as Agnes Martin, Jack Youngerman, Lenore Tawney, Chryssa, and Cy Twombly.

The suite of ten prints presented here, complete with the original clamshell case and the poems of Robert Creeley, was printed at the world renown Editions Domberger in Stuttgart. Their incredible attention to precision is matched perfectly with Indiana’s sharp, clean lines. This portfolio was one of their first collaborations, but certainly not their last.

Although apparently simple in composition, Indiana’s numbers, as well as their corresponding colors, are loaded with symbolism. Arranged from 1-0, the number one symbolizes birth while zero represents death. The color combinations and numbers in between represent themes from infancy, youth and adolescence to the stark warning of the yellow and black number nine. The deliberate arrangement, choices of color, and sharp compositions are quintessentially Robert Indiana and instantly recognizable as his own.

Numbers (the complete portfolio)

Numbers (the complete portfolio)