Numbers 1-9 (2) 1983

Robert Indiana's 'Numbers 1-9 (2)' is a game of crisp edges and luscious colour. The smooth surface of the paint looks almost like it has been printed, a kind of proto digital aesthetic that suggests a mechanistic process, yet the result is anything but cold. Take the curve of the blue form, how it unfurls across the picture plane. It’s so precise, it's like a graphic design. The way it hovers against that lime green background makes me think of Matisse cut-outs, or maybe even Ellsworth Kelly. Yet in comparison they feel almost homespun, where Indiana feels bold, new, almost futuristic. Ultimately, Indiana’s work isn’t about numbers, it’s about how art can be a conversation, constantly echoing and reinventing itself across time. It is this conversation, not any one fixed idea, that keeps art alive.