ROBERT INDIANA BIOGRAPHY 1928 Born in Newcastle, Indiana 1929 Moves to the capital of Indiana, Indianapolis, centre of the thriving automotive industry. The automobile is a focus of his family’s life Beginning of the Great Depression 1935 Starts school at the age of seven in Moorseville where his intention to become an artist is greatly encouraged by a sympathetic teacher, Miss Ruth Coffman 1936 First trip to Texas to visit the Centennial Exposition at Fort Worth 1942 Leaves his mother’s home to return to Indianapolis and live with his remarried father in order to attend Arsenal Technical School. Works after school at Western Union and the Indianapolis Star but continues painting and holds a solo show of watercolors Words play the central role in the most elaborate and time-consuming project of his high school days; an illuminated transcription in the medieval style of the Second Chapter of Luke in Latin which he gives to the Arsenal Technical School upon graduation and is still regularly displayed there 1945 Attends Saturday scholarship classes at the John Herron Art Institute and takes instruction in semi-nude drawing under Edwin Fulwider 1946 Receives a scholarship to the John Herron Art Institute A second trip to Texas, this time to San Antonio 1948 While stationed nearby in Rome, New York, attends evening classes at Syracuse University and the Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute in Utica where he comes into his first contact with an instructor oriented to an international viewpoint – Oscar Weissbuch Visits New York City for the first time 1949 During the last year of his service edits the Sourdough Sentinel in Anchorage, Alaska, from which he returns home to Columbus, Indiana, on emergency leave for the death of his mother Attends the School of The Art Institute of Chicago for four years under the GI Bill of Rights, majoring in painting and graphics. Works nights for a steel company, a large department store, Marshall Field’s, and a large printing house Participates in many student shows but exhibits for the first time outside the walls of the Art Institute in a Near North bar in a three-man show, one co-exhibitor is schoolmate Claes Oldenburg 1953 Receives a scholarship to attend summer classes at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine, where he splits the Fresno Prize for a mural protesting the Korean War, since destroyed by a fire. Also receives the George Brown Traveling Fellowship and attends the University of Edinburgh for one year to complete the requirements for a Batchelor in Fine Arts Spends evenings at the Edinburgh College of Art printing his own verse set by hand with lithograph illustrations. Contributes to the Poetry Society of the University and designs the cover of its magazine Windfall On visiting the continent, tours the cathedrals of northern France and Belgium, and, on another trip, Italy 1954 Returns to the USA and takes up residence in New York City 1955 Lives in a room in the Floral Studios until he finds a temporary studio on West 63rd Street. Sells art supplies a few blocks away on 57th Street, which inadvertently puts him midstream a steady flowing tributary of the New York art scene; customers over the years include Ellsworth Kelly, James Rosenquist and Charles Hinman 1956 Moves to a studio at 31 Coenties Slip, formerly Fred Mitchell’s art workshop, overlooking the East River and the Brooklyn Bridge, between Wall Street and the Battery. A number of artists make studios on the Slip: Ellsworth Kelly at 3-5, Jack Youngerman and his wife Delphine Seyrig the actress at 27, Leonore Tawney, the weaver at 27, Agnes Martin both 27 and 3-5, John Kloss the designer at 3-5, and Alvin Dickstein at 25. Cy Twombly paints his last show at the Stable Gallery in Indiana’s studio at 31, and Gerald Laing paints his first American works in Indiana’s next building at 25 1957 Forced to move to a second loft on the Slip – both buildings were at the time occupied by the Marine Works, ship chandlers for over half a century Begins first Hard-Edged paintings based on the doubled form of the gingko leaf. These and avocados, which flourished under the skylights of the Marine Works, provide the organic motifs of his transitional period First trip to Philadelphia – with Ellsworth Kelly – to see the installation of Kelly’s mural and wall screens in the Penn Center Transport Building 1958 Takes a temporary job at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine produces his Crucifixion, a mural composed of 44 joined pieces of paper found on the floor of the loft when he first occupied it. Taking a year to complete, this work incorporates the organic forms of the ginkgo and avocado and initiates his preoccupation with the circle 1959 The circle as a dominant theme appears on several full sheets of plywood that are salvaged from renovations made for the workshop, and in his first work of this time on homasote and canvas Drives to visit the Carnegie International in Pittsburgh and back in one day with Agnes Martin and another neighbor to see Ellsworth Kelly and Jack Youngerman hung for the first time there Creates hi first constructions assembled from junk wood and iron weathered on the beaches of Fire Island 1960 Makes constructions from rusted metal and white gesso against old wood. Begins experimenting with polychrome aluminium Exhibits in ‘New Forms New Media’ group show at Martha Jackson Gallery, New York, in July French Atomic Bomb is his first piece shown in New York and is bought from the show and given to the Museum of Modern Art, New York. His second piece, GE, is selected for an exhibition at Union College in Schenectady, New York 1961 First two-man show with Peter Forakis at the David Anderson Gallery, New York The Museum of Modern Art, New York, acquires The American Dream 1962 First solo exhibition at the Stable Gallery, New York, in the autumn Visits the glass house of Philip Johnson in New Canaan and the Greenwich estate of Joseph Hirshhorn, both early collectors of his work Sidney Janis’ extravaganza ‘New Realists’ hangs his Black American Dream #2 in juxtaposition with some of the British precursors such as Black and Phillips. The show creates a critical furor Marilyn Monroe dies Travels to Boston to see the installation of The Calumet, a tribute to Longfellow, in the Rose Museum at Brandeis University 1963 Exhibits in ‘The Dawn’ exhibition with John Chamberlain. The Red American Dream #3 is acquired by the Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, The Netherlands The Albright-Knox in Buffalo, New York, acquires his Year of the Meteors The American Center shows reluctant Paris some of his earliest numbers Exhibits in ‘American 1963’ at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, an exhibition mixing the Formalist and Pop tendencies of the day The Art Institute of Chicago shows his Year of the Meteors The Oakland Museum organises ‘Pop Art USA’ First full museum show at the Minneapolis Walker Art Center; touring to the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston 1964 Collaborates with Andy Warhol on the film EAT, a portrait of Indiana eating a mushroom that Warhol slows down to run 40-odd minutes Invited by the List Foundation to do the inaugural poster for Philip Johnson’s New York State Theater at Lincoln Center The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, acquires X-5 Gives the Black Yield to CORE The unfinished Mother and Father shown for the first time at the Stable Gallery, New York First public commission to make a work for the exterior of the Circarama of the New York State Pavilion at the New York World’s Fair – the work is a 20-foot EAT sign Zero, an early number painting, is included in the ‘Group Zero’ exhibition at the Philadelphia ICA 1965 Invited to produce the sets and costumes for the University of California at Los Angeles’ production of The Mother of Us All Exhibits in the Corcoran Biennial First solo show on the West Coast in Rolf Nelson’s Gallery, Los Angeles where the Numbers are shown for the first time Moves to fifth and present New York studio on the Bowery, a former sweatshop luggage manufactory Invited to participate in the 150th Indiana Statehood Anniversary Arts Festival. The Figure Five hangs in the Senate Office Building and, at the invitation of the National Collection of Fine Arts, hangs for the next two years in the White House 1966 The year begins with the John Herron Museum showing its first Indiana, USA 666, in ‘Painting and Sculpture Today – 1966’ The ‘LOVE Show’, his third solo exhibition at the Stable Gallery, New York, is composed of LOVE paintings, sculptures and drawings, and The Cardinal Numbers, the second set of Numbers, is shown separately The Black and White LOVE, is bought and presented to Spellman College, a school in Atlanta, Georgia 1967 Designs the set, costumes and poster for the Center Opera Company’s production of The Mother of US All at the Tyrone Guthrie Theatre Commissioned by the Jewish Museum of New York City to do the 1967, or rather the 5727, Purim print, Purim: The Four Facets of Esther Exhibits Yield Brother in ‘Protest and Hope’ at the New School of Social Research, New York City, first of a subsequent of series of Yields (expanding the pleas to Sister, Mother, and Father), given to the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation Included for the first time in the Pittsburgh International at the Carnegie Institute with one of his two largest paintings, a LOVE Wall, which is acquired by the museum 1968 The Imperial LOVE, a diptych exhibited in the Whitney Annual, is used on the cover of RCA’s recording of Messiaen’s ‘Turangalila’ First solo exhibition with the Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, in collaboration with the Marion Koogler McNay Art Institute and Herron Museum of Art, TOWN? Represented for the first time in ‘Documenta IV’ at Kassel, Germany, by some 15 pieces.