Robert Indiana

Robert Indiana was orphaned at birth and adopted as an infant by Earl and Carmen Clark. His childhood was tumultuous, as his family moved twenty-one times before his parents divorced when he was a teenager. Indiana was determined to pursue art, and chose to serve in the US Army Air Corps at the age of seventeen in order to attend the Art Institute of Chicago on the GI Bill following his service. After completing his degree, he moved to Lower Manhattan, where he lived and worked with several other artists. In 1958 he began using Indiana as his last name because he felt Clark was too common, and he wanted to copy Renaissance artists whose last names were the names of their towns. He is best known for his iconic 1966 Love sculpture and related prints, on which the widely distributed US postage stamp is based. In 1975, Indiana moved from New York to Vinalhaven, Maine, where he continues to live and work.