Reviewing Indiana's text-based works that probe American identity and iconography during the postwar era
This catalog was published to accompany the 2025 exhibition of the same name at Pace Gallery. One of the preeminent figures in American art since the 1960s, Robert Indiana (1928-2018) played a central role in the development of assemblage art, hard-edge painting and Pop art. A self-proclaimed "American painter of signs," Indiana explored American identity, personal history and the power of abstraction and language in his practice.
Collecting seminal examples of his paintings and sculptures created over the course of his career, this volume sheds light on Indiana's lifelong artistic engagement with both the aspirations of the American Dream and its repressed dimensions, from colonialism to materialism and commodification. Alongside ample illustrations and archival imagery, The American Dream includes an introduction by Marc Glimcher and new texts by Thomas Crow, Natalie Prizel and Oliver Shultz. Reflections penned by artists Richard Tuttle and Hank Willis Thomas evince Indiana's indelible mark on the history of 20th-century art.