Currently I’m doing a series of self-portraits using words, which I call auto-portraits. They’re a throwback to the ‘American Dream‘ series I was doing before I started ‘LOVE.’ The word is an extremely dangerous element to use. Yet several artists have used words in their work. Rauschenberg and Johns used words, Stuart Davis is full of words. But those words were used almost offhandedly. My work, like my ‘LOVE,’ is absolutely otherwise. My paintings impart a message.
— Robert Indiana
Jeff Goldberg, “Love,” Unmuzzled Ox 14, 4, no. 2 (1976), p. 22.