{"id":11638,"date":"2016-06-16T18:19:09","date_gmt":"2016-06-16T22:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=11638"},"modified":"2020-09-29T09:08:16","modified_gmt":"2020-09-29T13:08:16","slug":"indianas-indiana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/indianas-indiana\/","title":{"rendered":"Indiana’s Indianas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summerguide 2016 | view this story as a .pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

This summer, a striking new Robert Indiana series is blowing in the wind.<\/span><\/h3>\n

From Staff & Wire Reports<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"SG16-Indiana's-Indianas\"M<\/span>aine art star Robert Indiana is unveiling new work this summer in the show \u201cRobert Indiana: Now and Then,\u201d on view at Bates College Art Museum through October 8. \u201cHis latest series is the extraordinary Like A Rolling Stone,<\/em> in which he creates dynamic visual works with the lyrics of this Bob Dylan song,\u201d says Bates Museum of Art director Dan Mills, an edgy artist himself. \u201cThe twelve works in this series merge the work of two of the most iconic American pop culture figures of the 1960s, Bob Dylan and Robert Indiana.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Neither Robert Indiana nor Bob Dylan rolls with his original name. Indiana was born Robert Clark, in New Castle, Indiana. Bob Dylan changed his name from Robert Allen Zimmerman to his present stage name out of admiration for the poet Dylan Thomas. Together, the two have changed the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

A perfect pairing would be to see Indiana\u2019s show on Saturday afternoon, July 16, and then go to Thompson\u2019s Point in Portland that same night and hear Bob Dylan sing under the stars. Just more proof that at the peak of summer, Maine is the right place at the right time.<\/span><\/p>\n

Indiana takes us closer with his perspectives on Maine and his art in the exchanges below:<\/span><\/p>\n

On his 1964 EAT<\/em> sculpture:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe day they turned it on, a line formed. People wanted to know where the food was. I didn\u2019t see it there. But recently I saw it lit for the first time\u2013it\u2019s now here on the island [Vinalhaven].\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

On childhood:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy Aunt Ruby murdered my grandmother. My mother was elated, as she\u2019d hated her mother, and she went to South Bend to watch the trial. In her absence, my father found another women and left.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

On Andy Warhol:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

[Warhol filmed a 40-minute documentary, entitled \u201cEAT,\u201d showing Indiana holding his cat and eating a mushroom.] \u201cYou can imagine how exciting that was. Andy loved to bore people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

On creating an icon:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn 1964, I was commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art to do a Christmas card. It became the most popular Christmas card ever issued, and from there things just snowballed.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

on Defending against \u201cLove\u201d knock-offs:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI gave up on that a long time ago.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

On reaching a milestone:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLast night was very lavish, the fanciest and biggest birthday party I\u2019ve ever had. I would have preferred my eightieth in quiet solitude.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

On moving to Maine:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Star of Hope was the reason I came to Vinalhaven. It\u2019s an old Odd Fellows Hall. That\u2019s what I dreamed of all my life, a house like this. I have a studio in Star of Hope, another one in what was the island\u2019s first theater during the Civil War, and a third studio in what was formerly the Odd Fellows outhouse. It was an eight-seater, with a door for the officers, one for the enlisted men, and one for the lady Odd Fellows.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

On hope:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNow what I\u2019m preoccupied with is the subject of hope. I did a sculpture for Obama\u2019s campaign. Living in the Star of Hope for 25 years, I\u2019d done HOPE<\/em> designs for myself, but it was really Obama and his book, The Audacity of Hope<\/em>, that triggered my current involvement.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

On inspiration:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLiving on Vinalhaven has no effect on my art. My art comes from within myself, though LOVE<\/em> kind of stands apart. Most of my work is very autobiographical: I\u2019m painting my own history and my own life. This is called egocentricism. My own feeling is that artists are more interesting than their work. It\u2019s been my ambition ever since I was six years old to be an artist.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

On future projects:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy goal is to plant a LOVE <\/em>in every city around the globe.”<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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