Artwork Description
Robert Indiana – Fur KvF
Dimensions: 38 x 29.5″ paper
Year: 1990
Medium: lithograph on Rives BFK paper
Edition: ed. 71/89
Fur K.v.F. is part of the series The Hartley Elegies, inspired by the work of American modernist painter Marsden Hartley. Based on the work on that artist’s famous painting Portrait of a German Officer (1914)—which layers images of flags, medals, and various military insignia to create a “portrait” of the Prussian lieutenant Karl von Freyburg—Indiana translates the elements of Hartley’s painting into his own signature style.
A major figure in the development of Pop art in the 1960s, Robert Indiana is best known for his iconic LOVE series of sculptures and prints, which rank among the most recognizable images in postwar art. Describing himself as an “American painter of signs,” Indiana has developed a bold, graphic style inspired by road signs and billboards, reflecting his interest in Americana. Merging the aesthetics of commercial art with conceptual concerns, the artist probes American identity, culture, and heritage through a deceptively simple formal vocabulary.
Indiana’s work is in the collections of numerous major museums and institutions, and versions of his outdoor LOVE sculptures can be seen in cities worldwide, including New York, Hong Kong, Istanbul, and Montreal. His work has been the subject of major retrospectives at the Portland Museum of Art (1999) and the Whitney Museum of American Art (2013).