Numbers 1-0 is a public artwork by the American artist Robert Indiana, located at the Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA), which is near downtown Indianapolis, Indiana. This series of sculptures is composed of 10 brightly painted numerical digits, each made of aluminum and set on its own base. Their construction took place at the former Lippincott Foundry in North Haven, Connecticut from 1980 to 1983.
Description
These ten objects are fabricated from sheets of cut and rolled aluminum into the forms of Arabic numerals, or “numbers.” Each number is 8' tall, 8' wide, and 4' deep, and weighs between 600 and 1000 lbs. Each number is painted with a two-color scheme: one color for the front and back sides, and then a separate color for the interior and exterior panels. The range of colors includes four shades of blue and red; three shades of green; two shades of orange, yellow, and white; and one shade of purple, grey, and black.
The numbers are not exhibited in numerical order; they have been arranged by the artist to represent dates of personal significance. Each number is mounted onto a custom-fit aluminum base (resting on a center post) that rests on a square concrete block. All numbers are approximately the same total height and width, but vary in linear design depending on the shape of the number.
The artist's name, year of production (varies from 1980 to 1983), copyright symbol, and the foundry mark (Lippincott) have been stamped into either the right or left side of each number.
The sculpture's appeal and accessibility spring from the artist's use of everyday material—numbers, rich colors, and the typography of advertising. Though Indiana is best known as a Pop art artist, his color choices—vivid hues and contrasts between different surfaces—and how the numbers are arranged together—staggered, overlapping, nonlinear—reflect his interest in Op-Art.
Historical information
The numbers were conceived as a 1980 drawing made in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of Melvin Simon & Associates (now called Simon Property Group). Indiana accepted the commission to make the drawing specifically because it was attached to the creation of a series of corresponding, three-dimensional sculptures. At the time they were largest and most important commission of Indiana's career. They were made with the artist's stipulation that they eventually be donated to the IMA.
Indiana's original concept was inspired by a 19th-century print “The Life and age of man, stages of man's life from the cradle to the grave” which was given to Indiana in the 1970s.
In the 2002 New York Times preview of several Indiana exhibits that took place in 2003, the numbers and their colors were identified to represent the stages of man in this way: 1, red and green: birth; 2, blue and green: infancy 3, orange and blue: youth 4, red and yellow: adolescence 5, blue and white: pre-prime of life 6, red and green: prime of life 7, blue and orange: early autumn 8, orange and purple: autumn 9, yellow and black: warning 0, shades of gray: death.
Indiana had been working with the 10 numbers two-dimensionally since the late 1950s, but Numbers 1-0 was his first opportunity to realize them in sculptural form. He sees each number as being both an abstract idea and a representation of the physical presence of numbers in life; he associates many significant memories from his own life with numbers.
Other versions
Indiana has fabricated at least one other version of the Numbers 1-0 that is similar in both size and color to the IMA set; however, they are slightly smaller than the originals and the colors are slightly different. A set that was fabricated in 1996, were on view in New York City (on Park Avenue between 60th Street and 70th Street) in early 2003.
⅓ scale versions of Numbers 1-0 were on view at the Paul Kasmin gallery as part of his 2008 “Hard Edge” gallery show, which was planned in honor of the artist's 80th birthday ([Planned in honor of the artist's 80th birthday reference]). The colors used for these numbers were similar to, but not exactly like the IMA's or the 1996 versions.
Indiana also fabricated another 8' tall set of the numbers with un-coated Cor-ten steel for his 2006 exhibition in Madrid.