Chosen Love 1995

Curator: Standing before us is Robert Indiana’s 1995 work, "Chosen Love." It employs acrylic paint to present this well known icon. Editor: It hits you immediately with those bold colors! It's visually arresting; the graphic simplicity makes the message so immediate. The skewed "O" feels playful, a bit off-kilter. Curator: Absolutely. Considering Indiana’s process, his early work was built with salvaged wood before transferring those aesthetics and processes over to painted works. His earlier work has even been suggested to recall signs for highways, storefronts, and billboards. How do those production associations reflect American society? Editor: Well, it speaks volumes. Indiana's genius was taking the language of commercial art – stark typography, flat planes of color – and elevating it. This tilted 'O,' almost winking at us, transcends simple consumerism, right? It's taken on such broad symbolism! I can’t help but read religious interpretations into this as well. How is the “love” in "Chosen Love" being divinely expressed? Curator: That reading brings such an intriguing tension to my sense of materiality, and I think your noticing the spiritual ties in with Indiana's interests quite a lot actually. Editor: And isn’t the choice of "chosen" a profound detail? In terms of iconic imagery, this word specifically elevates the concept from a general feeling to something intentional, something exclusive, in some sense, and deeply felt. Curator: I like how that interpretation pulls apart ideas in a complicated way. The piece is still operating in a printmaking context though; he was always interested in the seriality of Pop. His workshop employed silkscreen processes on canvas throughout this era, after his turn from sculptural construction. Editor: I agree; I'm definitely seeing how mass production techniques influence its aura. Curator: So "Chosen Love", then, functions as more than just decoration. I appreciate how, even through his material explorations, Indiana makes the icon still deeply powerful and suggestive. Editor: Agreed. It truly makes you wonder at the ongoing potency and adaptability of simple symbols, of what cultural values persist in new aesthetic forms.