American artist, Robert Indiana, with one of his many ‘LOVE’ sculptures.
Robert Indiana was an American artist who rose to prominence in the 1960s. Closely associated with Pop Art (though he rejected the label), Indiana also played a pivotal role in the development of hard-edged painting and assemblage art, and he is best-remembered today for his iconic LOVE compositions.
Robert Indiana created art in a variety of mediums throughout his long life, including painting, sculpting, and printmaking. Prints dominate his market, accounting for 55% of the artist’s work sold at auction, where most reach prices between £1,000 and £5,000.
Below is a list of Robert Indiana’s six most expensive prints sold at auction. If you own a Robert Indiana print and would like to find out more about how much it may be worth, or how to sell it, get in touch with Mark Littler today.
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The Book Of Love
Robert Indiana made his name with his now-iconic LOVE motif, which he first started experimenting with in the 1960s, and which was popularised when New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) featured the design as its Christmas card in 1965. The image – featuring the word ‘love’ made into a square with stacked block capitals and a tilted ‘O’ – has been widely reproduced, copied, and appropriated in the decades since its conception, both with and without Indiana’s authorisation, and it is now viewed as a global icon.
Indiana himself revisited LOVE throughout his career, stating that “The LOVE is a concrete poem as far as I’m concerned. Just a one word poem.” This portfolio published in 1996 features 12 screenprints of the LOVE motif in different colour combinations, accompanied by 12 poems written by the artist. The portfolio is hugely popular in today’s market, accounting for 24 of the artist’s 30 most expensive prints sold at auction; this particular set exceeded its top estimate by £45,000 when it was sold by Phillips in June 2023 for £125,000, setting a new record for the artist’s prints.
The Book of Love sold by Phillips in 2023
A Garden Of Love
This set of six screenprints in colours dates from 1982, and it was sold by Christie’s in April 2023 for £76,444, more than £28,000 above its top estimate. In these prints, Indiana once again turned to the LOVE emblem which made his name. A self-proclaimed “American painter of signs”, Indiana repeatedly revisited certain words and motifs in his art, using them to explore American culture and identity, and securing his reputation as one of the most influential artists of his time.
When discussing his use of repetition in his art, Indiana likened it to Getrude Stein’s, the famous and eccentric writer who frequently used repetition in her work. For Indiana, ‘love’ was a hugely versatile word; as he said, “Love is a noun and a verb and so one must decide what my love is. It’s a command, love, and it’s a subject, love. It is an exercise, and grammar is one of my favourite subjects.”
A Garden of Love by Christie’s in 2023
Four Panel Love
In this set of four screenprints from 1972, Indiana divided his iconic LOVE design into four separate panels, displaying one letter of the word on each panel. The prints were sold by Sotheby’s in April 2021 for £57,785, more than three times their top estimate, thus exemplifying how versatile and popular Indiana’s motif remains more than 60 years since it was first used.
Four Panel Love sold by Sotheby’s in 2021
Numbers
Though Robert Indiana is most famous for his LOVE compositions and other artwork centred around words, he was also deeply interested in numbers. He once said: “Numbers fill my life. They fill my life even more than love. We are immersed in numbers from the moment we’re born. Love? Love is like a cherry on top of the whipped cream.”
Indiana often ordered his world using numbers, saying that “each one is loaded with multiple references and significances.” This can partly be attributed to his itinerant childhood, which was spent travelling between multiple different addresses and zip codes; the artist claimed to have lived in 21 different homes by the age of 17, stating, “In my mind, each of those houses had a number”. Indiana’s love of numbers inspired much of his most popular artwork, including this set of 10 prints from 1968, which was sold by Christie’s in April 2021 for £34,714.
Numbers sold by Christie’s in 2021
Hartley Elegies: The Berlin Series
Robert Indiana held the Modernist painter and writer, Marsden Hartley, in extremely high regard; the Hartley Elegies was a series of paintings that Indiana started in 1989 in homage to the older artist, all of which were inspired by Hartley’s own War Motif series. Indiana also produced a number of screenprints based on his paintings, including these ones from 1990.
Combining symbolic numbers, words, and images, Indiana successfully established a dialogue between Hartley’s original series and his own reinterpretation, and the Pop artist later said he considered the paintings “to be the most important paintings that I’ve done”. The prints are also considered noteworthy; this set of five was sold by Christie’s in October 2022 for £24,193, more than double the top estimate.
Hartley Elegies: The Berlin Series sold by Christie’s in 2022
Four Seasons Of Hope (Silver)
In 2008, ‘Hope’ was one of Barack Obama’s slogans during his presidential campaign; in response, Indiana created a series featuring the word in support of Obama’s bid. The similarities between LOVE and the resultant HOPE images are clear, with HOPE echoing the tilted ‘O’ and square formation of the letters found in LOVE.
Indiana continued to experiment with HOPE over the next few years; this vibrant set of four 2012 prints were sold by Menzies Art Brands in November 2022 for £23,407. The artist once said: “I’d like to cover the whole world with hope”, and, to some extent, the optimistic and colourful artworks that make up his legacy have done just that.
Four Seasons Of Hope (Silver) sold by Menzies in 2022
