Sam Rohn

Robert Indiana’s best known image is the word LOVE in upper-case letters, arranged in a square with a tilted letter O. This image, first created for a Christmas card for the Museum of Modern Art in 1964, was included on an eight-cent United States Postal Service postage stamp in 1973, the first of their regular series of “love stamps.”

Infamously, Indiana failed to register the copyright for his catchy image and found it difficult to deter unauthorized use. The image has been reproduced and parodied countless times in sculptures, posters, and 3-D desk ornaments. It has been rendered in Hebrew, Chinese, and Spanish. It strongly influenced the original book cover for Erich Segal’s novel Love Story. A parody appeared on a Rage Against the Machine album cover, Renegades, as well as the cover for Oasis’ single ‘Little by Little’ from the 2002 album Heathen Chemistry. London artist D*Face recently parodied the image by rendering the word hate with the A tilted. Belgian artist Eddy Gabriel made a version using the word lost. Evan Greenfield updated the sculpture with his sculpture “I’m Lovin’ It”.

click here to view a panorama of LOVE in Tokyo -