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Pace Gallery will globally represent the Robert Indiana Legacy Initiative, a company dedicated to managing the Pop artist’s art and legacy. Pace announced the news on Friday, just days before an Indiana show is set to open in Venice around the same time as the Biennale.
The Robert Indiana Legacy Initiative bills itself as the primary organization responsible for maintaining Indiana’s art and archives. It was formed by dealer Simon Salama-Caro in 2022, not long after the estate settled a complex and long-running legal conflict over Indiana’s legacy.
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“This is the start of an exciting next phase of Robert Indiana’s illustrious legacy,” Salama-Caro said in an email to ARTnews. “For Bob’s work to be globally represented by Pace Gallery provides wondrous opportunities for a distinctly American artist to be further introduced to new audiences around the world, where his art can continue to influence and inspire artists and creatives for years to come.”
Indiana remains famous for his bold use of numbers and letters in sculptures, paintings, and prints. His iconic 1964 LOVE image, for example, has appeared as sculptures, prints, and more, and is widely known.
After hitting it big in New York alongside the likes of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, Indiana left for the remote island Vinalhaven, off the coast of Maine, in 1978. Unlike his Pop colleagues, Indiana had a rough time in New York and wasn’t receiving big retrospectives. His luck changed in the 1990s, however, when Salama-Caro began representing him. Indiana sold the rights to LOVE to the Morgan Art Foundation, providing him with a financial lifeline. In the meantime, Salama-Caro helped get Indiana’s work into major museums and galleries.
The dealings surrounding Indiana’s art, both before and after his death in 2018, have been the subject of controversy, with allegations of forgery, elder abuse, and financial mismanagement on the part of others involved.
Until now, Indiana’s work has been represented by Kasmin gallery in New York and Waddington Custot in London. Pace, which first showed Indiana’s art in 1962, has taken exclusive representation of Indiana, but the gallery still plans to work with others to showcase the artist’s work.
Indiana joins a roster of notable postwar estates and foundations that includes Agnes Martin, Claes Oldenburg, Jean Dubuffet, Robert Irwin, Sam Gilliam, Kenneth Noland, and Mark Rothko.
Pace CEO Marc Glimcher said in a phone interview with ARTnews, “We think that there is a lot for people to learn about Robert Indiana and his contribution. We think that people are going to be astounded by the show in Venice.”
That show, titled “Robert Indiana: The Sweet Mystery,” will be on view at the Procuratie Vecchie in Piazza San Marco in Venice. Organized by Yorkshire Sculpture Park and curated by Matthew Lyons, it will feature works spanning more than 60 years of his career.
“This is a very multigenerational gallery,” Glimcher continues. “This is a period that actually needs a lot of attention right now for people to understand how much influence it has had on them.”