Artist: Robert Indiana (American, 1928-2018)
Title: "Decade: Autoportrait '70 (Vinalhaven)"
Portfolio: Decade: Autoportraits, Vinalhaven Suite
*Signed and dated by Indiana in pencil lower right
Year: 1980
Medium: Original Screenprint on white Fabriano Classico paper
Limited edition: 111/125, (there were also 10 artist's proofs)
Printer: Domberger KG, Filderstadt, West Germany
Publisher: Multiples, Inc., New York, NY
Reference: "Robert Indiana Prints: A Catalogue Raisonne 1951-1991" - Sheehan No. 114, page 66; "The Essential Robert Indiana" - Krause/Wilmerding No. 31, page 98-99
Sheet size: 26.75" x 26.75"
Image size: 24" x 24"
Condition: Some minor scuffing. In excellent condition
Notes:
Provenance: private collection - Miami, FL; acquired from Margulies Taplin Gallery, Boca Raton, FL retaining their original gallery label. Numbered by Indiana in pencil lower left. Comes from Indiana's 1980 "Decade: Autoportraits, Vinalhaven Suite" portfolio of 10 screenprints, (Sheehan No. 114-123). Domberger chop mark/blind stamp lower left and Multiples chop mark/blind stamp lower right. Fabriano watermarks at top and bottom margins. Final photo: Indiana with an example of this work from the catalogue raisonne, page 16.
In 1988, Margulies Taplin Gallery was opened in Miami, Florida by Christine “Cricket” Taplin, her husband Martin Taplin, and their friend, renowned art collector Martin Margulies. The gallery presented works from a variety of well-known artists, such as Vik Muniz, Manuel Neri, Nancy Graves, Jonathan Lasker, Peter Halley and Joel Shapiro, among others. Margulies Taplin Gallery had locations in Coral Gables and Boca Raton. The trio would later close the gallery in 1997.
Biography:
Robert Indiana was born on September 13, 1928 named Robert Clark in New Castle, Indiana, and was adopted as an infant by Earl Clark and Carmen Watters. After his parents divorced, he relocated to Indianapolis to live with his father so he could attend Arsenal Technical High School (1942–1946), from which he graduated as valedictorian of his class. After serving for three years in the United States Army Air Forces, Indiana studied at the Art Institute of Chicago (1949–1953), the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine (summer 1953) and Edinburgh University and Edinburgh College of Art (1953–1954). He returned to the United States in 1954 and settled in New York City. In New York, Indiana's lover Ellsworth Kelly, whom he met in 1956, helped him find a loft on Coenties Slip. On Coenties Slip he met neighboring artists like Jack Youngerman, Agnes Martin and Cy Twombly, with whom he shared his studio for a time. Indiana's career took off in the early 1960s after Alfred H. Barr, Jr., bought The American Dream, 1 for the Museum of Modern Art.
In 1964, Indiana moved from Coenties Slip to a five-story building at Spring Street and the Bowery. In 1969, he began renting the upstairs of the mansarded Victorian-style Odd Fellows Hall named "The Star of Hope" in the island town of Vinalhaven, Maine, as a seasonal studio from the photographer Eliot Elisofon. Half a century earlier, Marsden Hartley had made his escape to the same island. When Elisofon died in 1973, Indiana bought the lodge for $10,000 from his estate. He moved in full-time when he lost his lease on the Bowery in 1978. Indiana grew reclusive in his final years. He died on May 19, 2018, at his home in Vinalhaven, Maine, of respiratory failure at the age of 89. One day before his death, a lawsuit was filed over claims that his caretaker had isolated him from family and friends, and was marketing unauthorized reproductions of his works.