Description:
Suite of five, edition 27/100
Label Text:
Robert Indiana derived this suite of five silkscreen prints from a group of paintings he produced in homage to the 20th-century American artist Charles Demuth. Indiana based the format of his series on Demuth’s well-known painting The Figure 5 in Gold, which was inspired by a William Carlos Williams poem celebrating the speed and clamor of a fire engine. Each part is distinguished by different words—“Err,” “Die,” “Eat,” and “Hug”—which appear simultaneously moralizing and nonsensical. Arranged as a cruciform, the prints suggest that these four concepts are essential elements defining the American Dream. Associated with the Pop Art movement, Indiana felt a special kinship with the long-deceased Demuth, not only because the earlier modernist’s graphic style was similarly based on popular imagery (such as billboards and advertising), but also because of their shared homosexuality.
Subjects:
screen prints; Silk Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=AC+1985.69.a-e |
