Love Is God: Indiana Art Analysis

It wasn’t until 1962, that Indiana first painted something that would one day become a world-known symbol. It began as a painting, which evolved into a different painting, which eventually evolved into various sculptures, and has now evolved into a national symbol. The original painting entitled Love was just a small work of art. The theme of the artwork, love, still meant a great deal to Indiana though. Soon, various private organizations were asking Indiana to paint various versions of Love for their own personal use. One, entitled Love is God was painted three years after the original artwork was simply stenciled words on a fading, gradient canvas. However, Indiana’s vision of what this art could turn into continued to grow, “the subject in general had been in his mind
Eventually, it was the Philadelphia museum that commissioned a serigraph now known as the Philadelphia Love. It wasn’t long until the patrons of the museum fell in love with the stamp and the museum asked for Indiana to create a large, statue version of the artwork. Indiana complied and within the year the Philadelphia Love statue was established. Indiana also allocated the use of his Love to many others for example a Love rug, Christmas card, and rings were all now products available for purchase. And it wasn’t long before more sculptures began asking for permission to use Love to create works of art. The public and critics fell in love with Love and to this day the painting (although now better known since it has been converted into a statue) is still a national symbol, even being translated into different languages and sculpted around the world. Robert Indiana was now a well-known artist, his Love paintings and statues becoming national trademarks, and leaving him as a well-established and reputable