The American Four, 1970

Robert Indiana was an American artist whose print, LOVE created for the Museum of Modern Arts became a widely distributed stamp for the United States Postal Service in 1973. His work is associated with the pop art movement. Robert Indiana studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and also the Edinburgh College of Art. Robert Indiana's work is often created with simple yet bold iconic images. He uses numbers and a lot of short words such as HUG and EAT with his most famous being LOVE. The words shout from his paintings in paint or light bulbs against a pale background. A milestone in his career was when an architect commissioned one of his EAT signs for the New York State Pavilion during the 1964 World's Fair. Another of Robert's well-known works was his painting the basketball court used by the Milwaukee Bucks with a large M taking up half of each court. Robert Indiana has been both a costume and theatrical set designer in productions such as the Santa Fe Opera's, The Mother of Us All, and stared in Andy Warhol's film Eat. He was best known for the image of LOVE where he stacked the LO and VE on top of one another arranged in a square. The iconography was first used in a set of poems written in 1958, then in a painting titled, Love is God, in a Christmas card for the Museum of Modern Art and finally by the U.S. Postal Service as a stamp in their series of "love stamps." Robert created an image much like his LOVE icon in 2008 showcasing Barack Obama's presidential campaign. His stainless steel sculpture of HOPE was set outside Denver's Pepsi Center during the Democratic National Convention. The Obama campaign used this symbol for pins, bumper stickers, T-shirts and other campaign propaganda items. This sculpture has had editions released and sold internationally as Robert calls HOPE, Love's close relative. (Artist website)