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Lot Essay
This work will be included in the Robert Indiana catalogue raisonné being prepared by Simon Salama-Caro.
Orb, 1960 is from Robert Indiana's first mature body of work, a series of totem-like sculptures referred to as "hermes", after the Greek god Hermes. While scavenging for materials for his assemblages around his Coenties Slip neighborhood, Indiana lucked upon a group of wooden structural beams. The slabs, with their suggestive haunched tenon at the top and life-size proportions inspired Indiana to make these breakthrough works between 1960-1962. For the very first time, Indiana would use text, numbers, bright flat color and create the "contemporary signs" for which he is best known.
Hermes (who became Mercury in Roman mythology) is a Greek god with an expansive number of traits and mythological roles. He was both a messenger to the gods, as well a phallic god attached to fertility and good fortune, which proved to be an irresistible subject for the artist. Hermes was also a god who looked over travelers and as a result, scattered throughout ancient Greece were rectangular slabs or pillars, that functioned as road markers, with a bust of Hermes at the top and with a phallus towards the bottom. Indiana's Hermes sculptures are suprisingly true to the original, in its proportions, staunch verticality, phallus and its function as a kind of contemporary sign post.
Using objects dripping with nostalgia and an age-worn patina allowed Indiana to "incorporate reality into his sculpture without imitating it" (W. Katz, Robert Indiana Early Sculpture 1960-1962, London, 1991, p. 13). From this time forward, Indiana would become a painter of signs, and his poetic sensibility combined with his personal numerology philosophy have provided him with endless possibilities. Using 19th Century metal stencils, Indiana painted the sculptures in bright, primary colors and adorned then with various objects--in Orb, the wheels allude to Hermes winged sandals and the number 3 is echoed in the three circles (or orbs) that run vertically along the sculpture, as well as the three sided triangle.
The "orbs" also are symbols of life everlasting and are used in England's coronation ceremony--when the queen is crowned, she is holds mace in one hand and an orb in another.
Incredibly rare, Orb is one of only 20 Hermes sculptures created in the early 1960's. Since its creation, this seminal sculpture has been exhibited and illustrated extensively, only some of which is listed here. Indiana's compelling mix of Pop Art, sexual themes and contemporary issues, are increasingly being seen as some of the crucial works of their time.
Robert Indiana's studio, c. 1960s Courtesy of the artist
Orb, 1960 is from Robert Indiana's first mature body of work, a series of totem-like sculptures referred to as "hermes", after the Greek god Hermes. While scavenging for materials for his assemblages around his Coenties Slip neighborhood, Indiana lucked upon a group of wooden structural beams. The slabs, with their suggestive haunched tenon at the top and life-size proportions inspired Indiana to make these breakthrough works between 1960-1962. For the very first time, Indiana would use text, numbers, bright flat color and create the "contemporary signs" for which he is best known.
Hermes (who became Mercury in Roman mythology) is a Greek god with an expansive number of traits and mythological roles. He was both a messenger to the gods, as well a phallic god attached to fertility and good fortune, which proved to be an irresistible subject for the artist. Hermes was also a god who looked over travelers and as a result, scattered throughout ancient Greece were rectangular slabs or pillars, that functioned as road markers, with a bust of Hermes at the top and with a phallus towards the bottom. Indiana's Hermes sculptures are suprisingly true to the original, in its proportions, staunch verticality, phallus and its function as a kind of contemporary sign post.
Using objects dripping with nostalgia and an age-worn patina allowed Indiana to "incorporate reality into his sculpture without imitating it" (W. Katz, Robert Indiana Early Sculpture 1960-1962, London, 1991, p. 13). From this time forward, Indiana would become a painter of signs, and his poetic sensibility combined with his personal numerology philosophy have provided him with endless possibilities. Using 19th Century metal stencils, Indiana painted the sculptures in bright, primary colors and adorned then with various objects--in Orb, the wheels allude to Hermes winged sandals and the number 3 is echoed in the three circles (or orbs) that run vertically along the sculpture, as well as the three sided triangle.
The "orbs" also are symbols of life everlasting and are used in England's coronation ceremony--when the queen is crowned, she is holds mace in one hand and an orb in another.
Incredibly rare, Orb is one of only 20 Hermes sculptures created in the early 1960's. Since its creation, this seminal sculpture has been exhibited and illustrated extensively, only some of which is listed here. Indiana's compelling mix of Pop Art, sexual themes and contemporary issues, are increasingly being seen as some of the crucial works of their time.
Robert Indiana's studio, c. 1960s Courtesy of the artist