Robert Indiana’s 'LOVE' Joins The Huntington

KEY TAKEAWAYS 

• The Huntington has acquired Robert Indiana’s LOVE, one of the most recognizable works of postwar American art, as a gift for its permanent collection. 
• The monumental sculpture will be installed near the Virginia Steele Scott Galleries of American Art and unveiled to the public before the end of the year. 
• The acquisition strengthens The Huntington’s holdings of mid-20th-century American art, building on works by Andy Warhol, Sam Francis, Tony Smith, and others. 

Robert Indiana’s LOVE—one of the most iconic images of postwar American art—will join The Huntington’s permanent collection later this year. The monumental sculpture, designed in 1966 (fabricated in 1999), will be installed near the Virginia Steele Scott Galleries of American Art, close to the institution’s American art collections and surrounding gardens. 

The sculpture is a gift of Terri and Jerry Kohl, with additional funding provided for installation and long-term care. Executed in polychromed aluminum, the work is number three in an edition of five, with two artist’s proofs. Upon installation, it will be the only publicly accessible LOVE sculpture in Southern California. 

The acquisition coincides with the 60th anniversary of the debut of Robert Indiana’s first LOVE sculpture, unveiled in May 1966 at the artist’s solo exhibition LOVE at Stable Gallery in New York, just days before Mother’s Day that year. Just 12 inches high, that early version has since evolved into one of the most recognizable sculptures in the world. The Huntington’s newly acquired edition stands 12 feet high and 12 feet wide. 

First conceived in the mid-1960s, Indiana’s stacked letters—with the distinctive tilted “O”—have become a defining image of Pop Art. Originally created as a drawing in 1964, the image was selected for the Museum of Modern Art’s annual holiday card in 1965 before evolving into one of the most recognizable sculptures in the world. Over time, LOVE has accrued layered meanings: first as an emblem of the optimism and contradictions of postwar America, and later as a symbol embraced by LGBTQ+ communities, particularly during the AIDS crisis, when it came to signify care, loss, and solidarity. Those associations continue to inform the work’s cultural resonance today. 

At The Huntington, LOVE is planned for installation near the Erburu entrance to the Virginia Steele Scott Galleries of American Art. The sculpture will be situated within Oak Meadow, a site being developed as part of The Huntington’s THIS LAND IS… initiative, a suite of exhibitions and programs marking the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. 

“We are deeply grateful to Terri and Jerry Kohl for their generosity in making this acquisition possible,” said Karen R. Lawrence, president of The Huntington. “Jerry believed LOVE belonged in a place where it would be seen and experienced by millions of visitors in the years leading up to the Los Angeles Olympics, during the games, and far beyond. He recognized The Huntington as a cultural destination uniquely positioned to steward the work and share it with a broad public audience.” 

“This gift began not in a boardroom or an acquisition meeting, but with two people falling in love with a sculpture over many years,” said Terri and Jerry Kohl. “We encountered LOVE together in cities around the world, and it kept drawing us back. When the opportunity came to place it permanently, The Huntington felt like the natural home—where millions of visitors will experience it for generations to come.” 

The acquisition reflects The Huntington’s long-standing vision of a museum without walls, where indoor and outdoor experiences are conceived as part of a single encounter. 

“This sculpture exemplifies how art can operate beyond the gallery while remaining in dialogue with it,” said Christina Nielsen, Hannah and Russel Kully Director of the Huntington Art Museum. “Its placement underscores our commitment to presenting art within a broader cultural and environmental context.” 

LOVE will join major outdoor sculptures in Oak Meadow and surrounding gardens by Enrique Martínez Celaya, including The Gambler and The Landmark, as well as works by Sam Francis, Tony Smith, and Harry Bertoia. Together, these works reflect The Huntington’s approach to presenting sculpture in relation to architecture, landscape, and the American art collections in the Virginia Steele Scott Galleries of American Art. 

That approach has deep roots at The Huntington. Starting in 1910, Henry E. Huntington began acquiring outdoor sculptures for the gardens, personally determining the placement of each work and, in some cases, relocating sculptures multiple times until he was satisfied. Themes of love have long recurred among the garden statuary, much of which dates from the late 17th and early 18th centuries, alongside works by 20th-century American artists such as Anna Hyatt Huntington. Today, visitors encounter sculpture in varied media and from diverse cultural traditions across the gardens and galleries. 

Within the collection, Indiana’s sculpture strengthens The Huntington’s holdings of American art from the mid-20th century onward. It joins Pop artworks by artists including Andy Warhol. Warhol’s works at The Huntington include Brillo Box and Small Crushed Campbell’s Soup Can (Beef Noodle), along with a significant group of prints and photographs that helped define the visual language of Pop Art. The American art galleries also reflect the broader range of 20th-century practice, including works by artists such as Betye Saar and Elizabeth Catlett, alongside sculpture by Isamu Noguchi, Paul Manship, Gaston Lachaise, Elie Nadelman, Daniel Chester French, Sargent Claude Johnson, Richmond Barthé, Harry Bertoia, and Wilhelm Hunt Diederich, situating Indiana’s work within a longer continuum of American sculptural practice. 

“Indiana’s LOVE occupies a central place in the history of American art after 1960,” said Dennis Carr, Virginia Steele Scott Chief Curator of American Art. “Its acquisition deepens our representation of American modernism while extending conversations already present in the collection, from Andy Warhol’s engagement with language and image to large-scale sculpture by artists such as Sam Francis and Tony Smith.” 

About Robert Indiana  

Robert Indiana (1928–2018) was a major figure in postwar American art, who was at the center of the Pop Art movement of the 1960s. Additionally, he played a key role in the development of assemblage art and hard-edge painting. 
 
Indiana created a highly original body of work that explores American identity, personal history, and the power of abstraction and language, establishing an important legacy that resonates in the work of many contemporary artists who incorporate the written word.  
 
His artworks have been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions and are included in permanent collections of important American and international museums, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the Tate Modern in the United Kingdom.  
 
Recent survey exhibitions include a 2013 retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art, a 2018 sculpture survey at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery (renamed in 2023 the Buffalo AKG Art Museum), and the first major European survey at Yorkshire Sculpture Park in 2022. Indiana died in 2018, at the age of 89. 

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About The Huntington 

The Huntington, a world-renowned cultural and educational institution, provides transformative experiences for a community of the curious. Founded in 1919 by Henry E. and Arabella Huntington, it supports research and promotes public engagement through its expansive library, art, and botanical collections. By cultivating dynamic scholarship, creating innovative programs for students and lifelong learners, and sharing its extraordinary resources, The Huntington invites all on a journey of discovery, insight, and connection. Only 12 miles from downtown Los Angeles, The Huntington is located at 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, California. Learn more at huntington.org.