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Robert Indiana
Robert Indiana (EAT / DIE / HUG / ERR) (Sheehan 136), Unique proof, Signed VP1/1

1986

$15,000
£11,444.63
€13,028.81
CA$21,082.67
A$23,174.99
CHF 12,166.76
MX$275,567.24
NOK 156,248.82
SEK 142,325.79
DKK 97,346.10

About the Item

Robert Indiana American Dream (EAT / DIE / HUG / ERR) (Sheehan, 136), 1986 Hard and soft-ground etching, aquatint, drypoint and stencil on white Arches paper 37 inches × 21 inches Hand signed, numbered, titled and dated on the lower right front in graphite pencil Published by Vinalhaven Press, Vinalhaven, Maine; Printed by Anthony Kirk, Vinalhaven Press, Vinalhaven, Maine Catalogue Raisonne Ref: Sheehan, 136 Unique - Historic Unframed The is a unique proof of Robert Indiana's important 1986 etching, aquatint, drypoint and stencil on Arches paper entitled "American Dream". The words read simply "EAT/DIE/HUG/ERR" - expressing basic humanistic activities - and recalling Indiana's 1963 etching "ERR 123" - both being some of the few etchings Robert Indiana did in his career. This print is - the Vinalhaven Proof, (publishers proof) from Robert Indiana's press in Vinalhaven Maine where he moved to after leaving the New York art scene. It is annotated in pencil VP 1/1 (Vinalhaven Proof, 1 of 1.) When Robert Indiana set up Vinalhaven press to print the works that he personally felt were important to make. This was one of them. This proof is aside from the regular edition of only 10. ROBERT INDIANA BIOGRAPHY One of the preeminent figures in American art since the 1960s, Robert Indiana played a central role in the development of assemblage art, hard-edge painting, and Pop art. Indiana, a self proclaimed “American painter of signs,” created a highly original body of work that explores American identity, personal history, and the power of abstraction and language, establishing an important legacy that resonates in the work of many contemporary artists who make the written word a central element of their oeuvre. Robert Indiana was born Robert Clark in New Castle, Indiana on September 13, 1928. Adopted as an infant, he spent his childhood moving frequently throughout his namesake state. His artistic talent was evident at an early age, and its recognition by a first grade teacher encouraged his decision to become an artist. In 1942, Indiana moved to Indianapolis in order to attend Arsenal Technical High School, known for its strong arts curriculum. After graduating he spent three years in the U.S. Air Force and then studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Skowhegan School of Sculpture and Painting in Maine, and the Edinburgh College of Art in Scotland. In 1956, two years after moving to New York, Indiana met Ellsworth Kelly, and upon his recommendation took up residence in Coenties Slip, once a major port on the southeast tip of Manhattan. There he joined a community of artists that would come to include Kelly, Agnes Martin, James Rosenquist, and Jack Youngerman. The environment of the Slip had a profound impact on Indiana’s work, and his early paintings include a series of hard-edge double ginkgo leaves inspired by the trees which grew in nearby Jeannette Park. He also incorporated the ginkgo form into his nineteen-foot mural Stavrosis (1958), a crucifixion pieced together from forty-four sheets of paper that he found in his loft. It was upon completion of this work that Indiana adopted the name of his native state as his own. Indiana, like some of his fellow artists, scavenged the area’s abandoned warehouses for materials, creating sculptural assemblages from old wooden beams, rusted metal wheels, and other remnants of the shipping trade that had thrived in Coenties Slip. While he created hanging works such as Jeanne d’Arc (1960–62) and Wall of China (1960–61), the majority were freestanding constructions which Indiana called “herms” after the sculptures that served as boundary markers at crossroads in ancient Greece and Rome. The discovery of nineteenth-century brass stencils led to the incorporation of brightly colored numbers and short emotionally charged words into these sculptures as well as canvases, and became the basis of his new painterly vocabulary. -Courtesy PACE Gallery
  • Creator:
    Robert Indiana (1928 - 2018, American)
  • Creation Year:
    1986
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 37 in (93.98 cm)Width: 21 in (53.34 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
    the work has been previously framed, so there are remnants of mounting hinges on the back of sheet which will frame out; otherwise in excellent condition.
  • Gallery Location:
    New York, NY
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU1745217369702

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Postcard signed, inscribed by Robert Indiana about his portrait at Coenties Slip
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Robert Indiana "My portrait was taken on Coenties Slip"...., 1993 Handwritten letter on an offset lithograph postcard Boldly signed in black marker under the letter 4 2/5 × 7 3/5 inches Unframed Unique one-of-a-kind hand written, hand signed note from Robert Indiana, dated 23 VII '93, written on the postcard depicting Robert Indiana's work "Mother and Father", published by the Farnsworth Museum in Maine. The note, done in black marker, is addressed to Don Allan II of Barrington, N.H. and reads" "DON - MY PORTRAIT IF YOU DO NOT KNOW, WAS TAKEN ON COENTIES SLIP IN NYC". Robert Indiana then signs the note.. (Presumably, the reply is in response to a letter or question this fan sent to the artist asking where Indiana's portrait was taken). Makes a great gift for Robert Indiana fans! Coenties Slip is a historic artist's address in the New York art scene - there was even a book written about it! Coenties Slip is a street in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City. It runs southeast for two blocks in Lower Manhattan from Pearl Street to South Street. A walkway runs an additional block north from Pearl Street to Stone Street Here's an excerpt from Art in America reviewing the book: "How does specificity of place play a role in art, enough to become more figure than ground, less a context than a character? This is one of the larger questions framing art historian Prudence Peiffer’s momentous new survey The Slip: The New York City Street That Changed American Art Forever. The book vividly documents a moment in the 1950s and ’60s when a cast of artists settled, at staggered intervals, in a three-block area around Coenties Slip, a street on Manhattan’s lower tip. Coenties Slip borrowed its name from one of the “slips”—inlets for the docking and repairing of boats—that once cut sharply into New York’s downtown waterfront, facilitating the busy circulation of fish, freight, and sailors between land and sea. While New York’s status as a maritime trading hub lured fleets of boats, it was the skeletal remains of that activity, by then sharply diminished, that drew artists to Coenties Slip. In place of industry, they found vast and vacant loft spaces, cheap to rent, in which they could both work and live (illegally, owing to zoning laws)....Peiffer’s book arrives nearly 50 years after the earliest attempt to honor the Slip: the 1974 exhibition “Nine Artists/Coenties Slip,” organized for an old downtown branch of the Whitney Museum on Water Street nearby. The exhibition showcased lesser-known inhabitants of the Slip, including Fred Mitchell (the first to settle there), Ann Wilson...
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