Oil on canvas, circa 1957. 150x201 mm; 6x8 inches.
Provenance: Gifted by the artist, Vinalhaven, Maine, to current owner, private collection, Maine.
Indiana (1928-2018), born Robert Clark in New Castle, Indiana, was recognized for his artistic talent during childhood and was enrolled in the art curriculum at Arsenal Technical High School in 1942. After graduating, Indiana enlisted in the Air Force and studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Skowhegan School of Sculpture and Painting in Maine during the summer of 1953, and the Edinburgh College of Art. Indiana returned from Scotland in 1954 and settled in New York. In 1956, fellow artist Ellsworth Kelly (1923-2015) persuaded Indiana to take up residence at Coenties Slip on the East River, a paved over inlet inhabited by a community of artists who made use of its abandoned warehouses and lofts. Lacking most modern amenities, the artists formed a tight-knit group who had to collaborate and share in order to survive.
Indiana, who had lived there until moving to the Bowery in 1964, was deeply influenced by life in Coenties Slip; the new inhabitants found vestiges of ships among the buildings, and Indiana began to create assemblages with these remnants. The young artist supplemented these sculptures with stenciled numbers and letters, the iconic style for which he would become heralded as a progenitor of the Pop Art movement. One of Indiana's most well-known works, the 1961-62 oil on canvas The Melville Triptych drew directly from Herman Melville's mention of Coenties and Indiana's home. Though Indiana was featured in several landmark exhibitions in New York during his early career, it was not until Alfred Barr acquired the artist's 1960-61 oil on canvas The American Dream, I for the Museum of Modern Art, New York that Indiana became one of the most prominent artists of his generation.
We have found fewer than ten other works by Indiana, that he created before 1960, at auction in the past 30 years; many of these early career paintings, sculptures and objects are now in public and private collections.
