A federal court has found fraudulent efforts by an art hawker to make and sell copies of iconic Maine artist Robert Indiana’s creations.
A jury had awarded $102 million in damages to Indiana‘s former business partner, Morgan Art Foundation.
The foundation had sued art publisher Michael McKenzie for fraudulent counterfeiting of Indiana’s work.
Indiana died eight years ago, having lived out his retirement on Vinalhaven, an island in Penobscot Bay just off Midcoast Maine.
The artist was most famously associated with a sculpture spelling out “LOVE” with the letters “L” and “O” piled atop the letters “V” and E,” and with the “O” tilted outward.
“Originally created as a painting in 1964, the motif eventually made its way onto the U.S. postage stamp and became beloved across the globe,” writes Jo Lawson-Tancred of ArtNet News.
The foundation, a for-profit outfit that partnered with Indiana in 1999, owns the rights to “LOVE” and other works.
“McKenzie worked with Indiana on another version of the work depicting the word ‘HOPE,’ timed to Barack Obama‘s presidential bid in 2008,” Lawson-Tancred reports.
“Later works attributed to Indiana and sold by McKenzie have, however, been subject to skepticism about the artist’s true involvement,” according to Lawson-Tancred.
Indiana’s iconic image ‘LOVE’ was first created in 1964 in the form of a card.
He sent these cards to several friends and acquaintances in the art world.In 1965,
Indiana was invited to propose an artwork to be featured on the Museum of Modern Art’s annual Christmas card.
He submitted several 12-inch square oil-on-canvas variations based on his LOVE image.
The museum selected the most intense color combination in red, blue, and green, its becoming one of the most popular cards the museum has ever offered.
Indiana was born Robert Clark, later changing his surname in 1958 to the state in which he was born.
He visited Life magazine photographer Eliot Elisofon on Vinalhaven in 1969, eventually renting the upstairs of a five-story 100-year-old Victorian home.
Indiana died May 19, 2018, at his home on Vinalhaven of respiratory failure at the age of 89.
