LOVE (sculpture, Indianapolis)

The total size of the composition: 3.7 meters in length, 3.7 meters in height and 1.8 meters in depth ^[1] . Material - Corten steel ^[1] . The sculpture is four hollow letters: “L” and “O”, standing on the letters “V” and “E”, respectively, and the letter “O” is inclined at an angle of 45 °. The letters “L” and “V” represent a single block without a gap between each other, and the letters “O” and “E” are separate parts of the composition with a distinct division ^[3] . Also, the letters "V" and "E" are connected with each other by serifs , and the letters "L" and "O" are clearly separated from each other. The pedestal is ordinary gravel ^[4] . The sculpture is naturally coated with iron (III) oxide , which gives it a reddish brown color and prevents further corrosion . In the summer of 2006, the uneven corrosion of the letters was removed by sandblasting with alumina , as a result of which they acquired their original silver-orange color ^[2] . At the end of the restoration, the composition was again exposed to the open air, where it gradually began to be covered again with a patina, returning to the color familiar to visitors ^{[1] [3]} .

The word “ love ” played a large role in the youth Western life of the 1960s ( hippies ), but Indiana claimed that he had this own, earlier and personal connection with this word. As a child, he became a parishioner of the Church of Christian Science and there he was greatly impressed by the tablet over the altar , on which was written a short phrase: “God is love,” taken from 1 John ( 4: 7-21 ).

For the first time, the LOVE image in the form of a square and with an inclined “O” appeared on the Christmas card of the New York Museum of Modern Art in 1964/1965 ^[5] . The image became popular, pirated copies of this drawing began to be printed, so in the late 1960s Indiana tried to protect this work with copyright , but was refused with the wording “one word cannot be the subject of copyright”. In 1973, the LOVE image was printed on an eight-cent stamp of the US Postal Service - more than 300 million pieces were printed ^[6] .

In July 1993, specialists at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art examined the sculpture for preservation, in particular, the presence of moisture inside hollow letters, and recognized the installation as being in good condition ^[4] .

Currently, LOVE sculpture variations are found in many cities of the Earth, and the word “love” is presented there not only in English , but also in Hebrew (אהבה) ^{[5] [7]} , Chinese (愛), Italian ( Amore ) and Spanish ( Amor ) ^[8] languages.

Location

The sculpture was created by Lippincott, Inc. ^[2] in , Connecticut , in 1970. Immediately after, it was transported to Indianapolis and installed on the main square of the new, just opened building. Over the next year, sculpture was exhibited in Boston and New York (in Central Park ). Returning to Indianapolis, LOVE stood for a while in front of the Indiana Bank building, then in a shopping center against the background of the administrative building of the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Company : this was done in order to use the composition as a background for Eli Lilly commercials, thus paralleling creativity in the art and creativity of a pharmaceutical company research.

Currently, LOVE stands in the open air at the Museum of Art, next to the artistic installation of , created by Robert Indiana himself in the early 1980s.

•   Wikimedia Commons has Robert Indiana's LOVE media files