Robert Indiana

Acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas
36 x 36 inches (91.4 x 91.4 cm)
Signed, dated, inscribed, and numbered R/W/B PP1/1 R Indiana ’08 (on the reverse)
© Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Photo: Annik Wetter

I wanted to help name and empower the next generation and I felt that HOPE encompassed the needs of our time.

—Robert Indiana

This silkscreen on canvas is part of a series that Robert Indiana created in support of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign in 2008 featuring the candidate’s compelling slogan: HOPE. Alongside Shepard Fairey’s poster with the same slogan, Indiana’s HOPE raised money for the campaign and helped to define it visually. Emblazoned with the red, white, and blue hues of the American flag, the present work deploys the word in a format related to the artist’s iconic LOVE. Dating from 1964, LOVE emerged during the social revolutions of the era and became an emblem of the decade’s utopian ideals. Indiana called HOPE “the long-awaited sibling of LOVE.”

To create the powerful composition of LOVE and HOPE, Indiana arranged their four capital letters into a square configuration, using a distinctive bold typeface with prominent serifs. Each letter is placed without kerning or line spacing, so that it remains legible while existing as part of single, interconnected unit. As with LOVE, the O in HOPE tilts, imparting a sense of dynamic action to the grouping.

Like love, hope can be a noun or a verb—a feeling, an aspiration, or an invocation to envision a better world. Indiana was a politically and socially engaged artist throughout his career and was eager to use his art as a catalyst for positive change. HOPE epitomizes his lifelong understanding of the power of iconic communicative form. Indiana continued to promote the ideal of hope for the rest of his life. October 14, 2014 was declared International HOPE Day in honor of the artist’s birthday, with events held worldwide.