LOVE, Artistically Trivia Quiz

Answer: Christmas cards

His use of the word became popular quickly, and the Christmas card quickly became the most popular card the museum had ever published.

Answer: Red

Red, green, and blue were the original colors of the painting. Many versions have been made of the painting; new colors like orange, purple, lime, purple, pink, black, and sky blue have made the painting more vibrant than ever.

Answer: New York City

The sculpture was completed in 1971, where many people came to see the tilted 'O' fall into place. Soon after, cities around the world had sculptures in their parks, including New Orleans, Philadelphia, Lisbon, Vancouver, Tokyo, Jerusalem, and Singapore.

In 1975, the original sculpture was acquired by the Indianapolis Museum of Art, where is has been on display since that time.

Answer: Weathering steel

Weathering steel, also known under the trademark name COR-TEN, was the original material used for the sculpture. Many of the similar sculptures around the US and world are also made of weathering steel. Some versions of LOVE that were not copyrighted were made of aluminum, but Indiana used weathering steel for most of his sculptures.

Answer: From a church decoration

Indiana's childhood experiences including attending a Christian Science church, where the only decoration in the church was a wall inscription that read 'God is Love'. Indiana used that quote in a future exhibition where he reversed the words to make 'Love is God'.

For more, go to the Indiana Museum of Art's page on this sculpture.

Answer: Phillips 66

Indiana once wrote "When I was a kid, my mother use to drive my father to work in Indianapolis, and I would see, practically everyday of my young life, a huge Phillips 66 sign...so it is the red and green against the blue Hoosier sky".

Answer: No

In an interview with Barbaralee Diamondstein, Indiana said that the tilted O was a very common medieval typographical device. However, over the years, he has said the O represents a cat's eye or an erect phallus.

For more, check out the book 'Robert Indiana: Figures of Speech' by Susan Elizabeth Ryan.

Answer: He had no signature or copyright on the artwork

Indiana did not want to disrupt the artwork by placing a signature or copyright on the painting. By doing this, he had no legal protection against imitators. The artwork was then copied by many companies, which included the makers of paperweights, cufflinks, keychains, and other items.

By the time all of the imitation had occurred, it was too late to file suit against the mass of false 'LOVE's.

Answer: True

He commissioned a sculpture with the Italian word for love, 'amor', and a sculpture with the Hebrew word for love, 'ahava'. The sculptures are displayed in Milan, Italy and Jerusalem, Israel, respectively.

Answer: Barack Obama

In 2008, Indiana with Obama designed a sculpture named 'HOPE' which Indiana calls "a brother to 'LOVE', or a sister, or a very close family member". 'HOPE' was unveiled in Denver outside of the Democratic National Convention. The image helped raised more than 1 million dollars with the sale of T-shirts, posters, pins, and bumper stickers.

But more importantly, this gave Indiana a renewed idea about 'LOVE'.