Lesson based on Robert Indiana's LOVE image. Thanks to L. Welling for the inspiration. The YouTube videos plays in the downloaded version Keynote (Mac) file.

1. By Robert Indiana

2. Robert Indiana’s painting LOVE is a formally sophisticated abstract composition, yet it
is also, in essence, a one-word poem. The brilliant contrast of the colors and the bold
contours of the letters imbue the word with an extraordinary visual intensity. Indiana
has arranged the word so that it fits in a square format, with the stacked letters touching
one another in a manner that suggests physical intimacy.
This work belongs to a series of paintings, sculptures and prints dedicated to the theme
of love that Indiana commenced in the mid-1960s. He created many variations on this
theme, including a design for a Christmas card that was commissioned by the Museum
of Modern Art in New York in 1965. Indiana rendered that composition on a
monumental scale in the present painting. Since its inception, Indiana’s distinctive
rendering of “love” as both a word and an image has captured the popular imagination
and become one of the most immediately recognizable works of art in the world.
Born Robert Clark in New Castle, Indiana, the artist changed his last name upon
moving to New York City in 1954. In the early 1960s, Indiana explored the style of
hard-edged painting that his friends such as Ellsworth Kelly were exploring. His
interest in words, however, distinguished his works from other abstract painters of the
time. Indiana had a long-standing interest in the written word, having been inspired by
poets such as Gertrude Stein early in his career. His composition for LOVE is
innovative in the way it dissolves divisions between seeing and reading, as well as
figure and ground. Indiana has described the character of his work as “verbal-visual.”

3. By Robert Indiana

4. By Linda Welling’s Students
Ceder Creek Elementary, Missouri

5. By Linda Welling’s Students
Ceder Creek Elementary, Missouri

7. ABCDE
FGH I J
KLMNO
PQR ST

9. LOVE
UV WX
YZ
L O V E

10. NAME

11. 10 X 10
STENCIL
NAME

12. NAME

13. NAME

14. NAME

15. NAME

16. NAME

17. NAME

18. NAME

19. NAME

20. NAME

21. NAME

22. NAME

23. NAME

24. NAME

25. If you don’t want to write LOVE~ try another CC word

26. HO GI KI
PE VE ND
SA HE GR
VE LP OW
If you don’t want to write LOVE~ try another CC word

27. GO
OD
Tilt
NAME

28. GO
OD
Tilt
NAME

29. GO
Use
tinted
colors
in the
negative
spaces
OD
NAME

30. GO
Use
tinted
colors
in the
negative
spaces
OD
NAME

31. GO
OD
Mono-
chromatic
Color
scheme
Use
shades
of the
same
colors
Comple-
in the mentary
positive Color
spaces scheme
NAME

32. GO
Trace
OD
NAME