Jan 17, 2025
Sara Anstis - Fishmonger, 2024
seen from Belarus
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from France
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from Slovakia
seen from Latvia
seen from China
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from South Korea
seen from United States
seen from Japan
seen from Germany
Sara Anstis - Fishmonger, 2024
Robert Indiana: The Source, 1959–1969, currently on view at Kasmin, presents a fascinating selection of the artist’s work from that decade. Several of his well known paintings like LOVE (pictured above) are included, but it is interesting to see his lesser known work as well as the progression in his work throughout this period.
From the gallery about the exhibition-
…Featuring 20 works drawn exclusively from the artist’s personal collection as endowed by Indiana to the Star of Hope Foundation, the exhibition includes an example from the artist’s first edition of LOVE sculptures, conceived in 1966 and executed between 1966—1968, and a vitrine display of archival materials including some of the artist’s journals. This exhibition marks Kasmin’s first collaboration with the Star of Hope Foundation, which was established by the artist in his lifetime, and the gallery’s eighth solo exhibition of work by Indiana since 2003.
Robert Indiana: The Source, 1959–1969 chronicles the Minimalist origins of Indiana’s signature use of signs, symbols, words and numbers. Pairing canonical works with those rarely seen by the public, the exhibition provides a deeper understanding of Indiana as an artist whose output remains emblematic of American culture. The paintings on view demonstrate the personal iconography the artist ascribed to his artwork: as his peers withdrew from the aesthetics of self-expression, Indiana embarked on a career-defining inquiry into the power of symbols to represent meaning. Organized thematically, the exhibition charts Indiana’s influential depictions of words and numbers in bold colors through his early abstractions, reflections on his personal history and the stages of life, and the poetic inevitability of transcendence—a return to the source.
From the gallery about LOVE and LIP (pictured above)–
After discovering a trove of nineteenth-century packaging stencils in 1960, Indiana began incorporating words and numbers in his paintings, spearheading the adoption of commercial advertisement as a language of art. LIP (1960–61), an early example of a single word painting, features the title word’s yellow letters at the center of two intersecting orbs, whose contours suggestively form a pair of red lips. Unraveling the distinction between sign and symbol, the composition suggests a kiss, a universal bodily expression of love.
More selections and information from the gallery below-
“October Painting”, 1959-60, Oil on canvas
Indiana began this composition, which depicts the shadows of a dracaena plant, in October 1959. “This, I feel, is a very seminal painting,” he wrote in a journal entry the following December, seeking to distinguish his own visual language from artists Jack Youngerman and Ellsworth Kelly.
“Ra”, c.1961, Oil on canvas
From the gallery-
After painting a series of orbs in 1959, Indiana revisited the theme in Ra (c. 1961), a triptych arranging a number of red, blue, and green circles in flattened pictorial space. This work’s title reflects Indiana’s early interest in mythology, referencing the Egyptian sun god Ra, historically depicted with a red solar orb and cobra over his head.
Circles appear in Indiana’s work as early as 1958 and resound through paintings such as Mother and Father (1963-66) and Hallelujah (Jesus Saves) (1969). The arrangement of orbs in Ra suggests Indiana’s fascination with sequences, an avenue he would explore in paintings of numbers including Cardinal Nine (1966), on view nearby.
“Cardinal 9”, 1966, Oil on canvas
Indiana’s Cardinal Numbers series (1966) depicts the numbers one through zero in red, blue, and green. Adopting the typography of a business calendar, Indiana conceived of each number to represent a stage of life. Cardinal Nine represents the near end of the sequence, just before zero. The palette held sentimental significance for Indiana, who recalled memories of the red and green signage of Phillips 66, the gas company where his father worked, against the open blue sky.
“Mother and Father”, 1963-1966, Oil on canvas
From the gallery-
Indiana’s extraordinary diptych Mother and Father (1963-66) depicts the artist’s scantily dressed adoptive parents entering a Model T Ford within two circles, as if observed through a pair of binoculars. Conceived as the first to depict his parents in each of the four seasons, Indiana only realized one iteration of the series, set in the winter. Details of the vehicle’s license plate allude to Indiana’s conception ahead of his birth in September 1928, as if to mythologize the artist’s biography.
In an accompanying artist statement, Indiana described this painting as an essential part of his celebrated American Dream series (1961-2001), which earned Indiana’s first major recognition after early acquisitions by The Museum of Modern Art, Van Abbemuseum, Art Gallery of Ontario, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, and elsewhere.
Indiana exhibited this painting in an early state in 1964, later adding its stenciled lettering in 1966. He continued to exhibit the work extensively, including in the São Paulo Biennial in 1967 and his traveling institutional retrospectives of 1968, 1977, 1982, and 2013.
“August Is Memory Carmen”, 1963, Oil on canvas
From the gallery-
The number 8 held special resonance for Indiana, whose mother, Carmen, was born in the month of August. August Is Memory Carmen (1963) incorporates the title of a lyric poem Indiana wrote in 1953, four years after her death. Indiana depicted her portrait alongside his father, Earl, in Mother and Father (1963-66), installed nearby.
This exhibition closes 3/29/25. It is presented in dialogue with Pace Gallery’s upcoming exhibition Robert Indiana: The American Dream, which will open May 9, 2025.
Stephanie Temma Hier in ‘North by Northeast’ at Kasmin Gallery
The unlikely combination of a snake and carrots and the media of painting and ceramics in Stephanie Temma Hier’s sculpture/painting at Kasmin Gallery both attracts and puzzles. Hier’s diverse combinations of imagery have included ceramic greyhounds with painted blueberries and sculptural lips enclosing a 2-D image of tulips; generally her juxtapositions prompt consideration of how the natural world has been mediated by human consumption. Titled ‘At the Root of the Curve,’ this painting links root vegetables to sinuous forms via algebra terminology. (On view in Chelsea through Aug 13th). Stephanie Temma Hier, At the Root of the Curve, oil on linen with glazed stoneware sculpture, 67 x 57 inches, 2021.
David Hockney (British, 1937-2026), Kasmin, December 1973. Pencil on paper, 65 x 49.9 cm.
John Kasmin (b. 1934) is a British art dealer and collector
"Kasmin, Los Angeles" by David Hockney - 28th March 1982 - Polaroïds composites
(My Photograph - Sous Ecstasy)
Jane Freilicher at Kasmin Gallery
Brilliant yellow flowers dematerialize in the hazy afternoon light in Jane Freilicher’s vibrant still life from 1967, now on view at Kasmin Gallery in Chelsea. Fifteen paintings from the ‘50s to the ‘00s, demonstrate an “…air of just coming into being, of tentativeness that is the lifeblood of art,” as John Ashberry, Freilicher’s long-time friend, put it. (On view through March 13th). Jane Freilcher, Goldenrod and Landscape, oil on canvas, 40 x 60 inches, 1967.
“H-Dropping” by Artist Lyn Liu
A selection of new work by Beijing-born artist Lyn Liu, including paintings from her recent solo exhibition, “H-Dropping,” with Kasmin gallery. … Continuedhttps://www.booooooom.com/2025/06/23/h-dropping-by-artist-lyn-liu/
With his eclectic range and loyalty to living artists, one didn’t know what to expect on walking into one of his New York galleries.