Enemies in Battle Over ‘LOVE’ Artist Bury the Hatchet

Can two rivals, bringing Robert Indiana’s long-hidden work into the light, reboot his legacy for a new generation?

Inside Kasmin Gallery in Manhattan, more than a dozen employees huddled like a football team. It was late February and the gallery’s president, Nick Olney, was giving his staff a pep talk before his version of the big game: the opening of the first New York exhibition of work by Robert Indiana since the artist’s death in 2018. Standing next to his celebrated “LOVE” sculpture, Olney laid out the game plan. The goal: a reboot.

Most people know Robert Indiana for only one thing: LOVE. The image of that four-letter word, with its jauntily tilted “o,” has appeared on city plazas, coffee mugs and refrigerator magnets worldwide.

But it is the scorched-earth battle over his legacy — complete with accusations of forgery, elder abuse and copyright infringement — that has riveted the art world since his death.

Now, after the settlement of key lawsuits, two formerly warring parties in that battle, each represented by a different Manhattan gallery, have entered into an unusual truce. They are out to prove that the artist was neither a one-hit wonder nor a cautionary tale. The stakes are high: The trove of Indiana artworks they are selling, previously tied up in litigation, is worth tens of millions of dollars.

Kasmin’s show will run through March 29. On May 9, Pace Gallery also plans to test the public’s appetite with an exhibition. It’s rare to have two galleries mounting shows of the same artist, especially one whose curb appeal is muted. To that end, both exhibitions aim to resuscitate Indiana’s lackluster market by bringing long-hidden work from his early career into the light, and to present him as an important American artist whose contributions have never been fully understood. “He’s an artist that is hiding in plain sight,” Olney said.

Galleries succeed or fail based on their ability to make artists feel relevant to contemporary audiences. But reintroducing Indiana now is a daunting task. With the art market in a slump, collectors are unwilling to compete for anything other than fresh material by a few rising talents and veritable masterpieces by brand names.