Oil on canvas; 232.40 x 152.00 cm<\/p>\n
1999<\/p>\n
The painting New Glory Banner revisits a subject that Indiana first approached in 1963, in a limited edition felt banner distributed through Multiples, Inc. The artist\u2019s earliest reworking of the American flag, also titled New Glory Banner, is a rectangle of red and white stripes with a blue circle of white stars in the center, a format that allows for the work to be displayed in a vertical or horizontal alignment. Indiana produced subsequent versions of the banner in felt, all retaining the original design, but departing from the American flag-based color scheme. In a letter to the German gallerist Alfred Schmela dated May 21, 1966, Indiana explained that the version in black, red, and yellow, the colors of the German flag, became his \u201cGerman-American flag,\u201d and a red, blue, and green version, based on the colors of his original LOVE painting, his \u201cVietnam-American flag.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indiana was not, however, simply experimenting with the formal qualities of the American flag; his New Glory Banner series has a distinct political message. This is seen both in the pentagonal alignment of the stars, an allusion to the Pentagon, and the inclusion of an extra star, a commentary on America\u2019s empire building. The particular meaning attributed to the 51st star has, however, varied. In a May 4, 1992, interview with Susan Elizabeth Ryan Indiana explained that the additional star in his \u201cVietnam-American flag,\u201d a work intended as an oblique protest to the Vietnam War, infers that the United States was possibly making Vietnam the 51st state, while a December 13, 1962, article in The Des Moines Register discussing a red, black, and white version at Grinnell College notes that the 51st star represents the Pentagon building.<\/p>\n
In his painting New Glory Banner Indiana returns to the original red, white, and blue color scheme, but employs a design that departs slightly from that of the felt banners, with a smaller circle of stars now placed in upper half of the flag. The stars still number 51, emphasizing the continuation of American imperialism. Social criticism and political commentary form a thread throughout much of Indiana\u2019s work, and in New Glory Banner the artist revisits an earlier design to make a currently relevant political statement. This is also illustrated by his 2001 painting Afghanistan, which closely follows the format of his 1965\u201366 Confederacy series.<\/p>\n
Robert Indiana (* 13 September 1928 in New Castle, Indiana; real name Robert Clark; \u2020 19 May 2018 in Vinalhaven, Maine) was an American painter and a major exponent of Pop Art and signal art.<\/p>\n
Indiana became known for his striking sign paintings, which are among the most radical expressions in Pop Art. Just as simple as Indiana’s 1966 work LOVE with its letters L and O, including V and E – in the colours red, blue and green – appear his other works of numbers, letters and five-pointed stars. This simplicity, the compression to the most essential, borrowed from advertising, led to the fact that his pictures could and did become a logo, a lettrist-emblematic image figure.<\/p>\n
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Material Oil on canvas; 232.40 x 152.00 cm Dating 1999 About the artwork The painting New Glory Banner revisits a subject that Indiana first approached in 1963, in a limited edition felt banner distributed through Multiples, Inc. The artist\u2019s earliest reworking of the American flag, also titled New Glory Banner, is a rectangle of red […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/art.thedoldergrand.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1412"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/art.thedoldergrand.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/art.thedoldergrand.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/art.thedoldergrand.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/art.thedoldergrand.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1412"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/art.thedoldergrand.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1458,"href":"https:\/\/art.thedoldergrand.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1412\/revisions\/1458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/art.thedoldergrand.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}