The LEAP Ambassadors were saddened to hear of Robert Indiana’s passing last week. Indiana was part of “pop-art” generation of artists that came of age in the 1950s and 1960s, and he is best known for his “LOVE” sculpture.
As far as we can tell, there are 21 such LOVE sculptures in the United States, and the LEAP Ambassadors have visited seven of them. Our most frequently visited of his sculptures is at the Besthoff Sculpture Garden in New Orleans…
…but we’ve also made multiple visits to the Indiana sculpture at Crystal Bridges, in NW Arkansas…
Some campuses are fortunate enough to have Indiana’s sculptures, and we’ve visited two of those, one on OU’s campus in Norman…
…and one in Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love…
Speaking of Philadelphia, they also have one near City Hall…
The first such sculpture was in Indiana, which displays Indiana in front of work by another pop artist, Roy Lichtenstein…
Indiana’s Capitol Building also showcases “LOVE,” but not in sculpture form…
The City of Scottsdale showcases a “LOVE” sculpture near their civic plaza…
…and we saw a version of LOVE (by another artist) in Odessa, next to versions of Rothko and O’Keeffe…
…our least favorite “LOVE” sculpture was in San Antonio, where the sculpture was wrapped up to protect it while the Museum did construction. We searched for far too long, wondering why we couldn’t find it, only to realize it was in this ridiculous-looking wrapped box.
Interestingly, not all of the “LOVE” sculptures say L-O-V-E. This one in DC, for example, says A-M-O-R.
That’s eight versions of LOVE, not counting the one that San Antonio boxed up, and not counting the stamps or the non-sculptural versions of the piece we have seen.
With trips this summer planned for San Antonio and Kansas, we’ll add at least two more to our list, leaving eleven more before we become Robert Indiana completists.
For more on Robert Indiana, check out this page.
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