Robert   Indiana

Born in New Castle in 1928, Robert Clark began assembling wood sculptures from found materials, often stencilling painted words on to them. He called these works herms after the quadrangular, stone stelae- guardian figures that served as signposts in crossroads in ancient Greece and Rome. Indiana called himself a 'sign painter' to suggest the humble origins of his artistic activity in the American work ethic and to indicate his fascination with the use of words in signs. Joining his interest in Americana with the formal and signifying elements of signs, he visualized the superficial and illusory American Dream in paintings characterized by flat bright colors and clearly defined contours influeced by the hard-edge paintings by friends such as Ellsworth Kelly and Jack Youngerman. He adopted the last name 'Indiana' which indicates his home state.

Photo: ©Stephen O. Muskie