LOVE to Show its True Face

If the weather cooperates, Robert Indiana's three-ton sculpture LOVE (1970) will once again be installed outdoors at the Indianapolis Museum of Art on Monday, July 10, 2006. The iconic sculpture had been moved indoors in 2005 to complete a conservation process that began in 2002. The final restoration phase involved dismantling the sculpture on June 26, so that conservators could begin sandblasting its face to expose the original steel surface. Once it has been installed at the end of the museum's Sutphin Mall, LOVE will remain outside for at least one year in order to allow weather cycles to furnish the purple and brown patina associated with Cor-ten steel.

From the time it was acquired by the IMA in 1975, LOVE has proved itself one of Indianapolis' favorite photo ops and a popular spot for marriage proposals. And, though it was constructed at the height of the Vietnam anti-war movement, Robert Indiana maintains that the concept for the sculpture had nothing to do with peace per se. Rather, it was inspired by the words "God is Love," the lone inscription in the unadorned Christian Scientist church that he attended during his childhood in Indianapolis.

Image Credit:

Robert Indiana (American, b. 1928)
LOVE, 1970
Cor-ten steel
12 x 12 x 6 ft.
Gift of the Friends of the IMA
In memory of Henry F. DeBoest
© Indianapolis Museum of Art