a LOVE story
On art & heartbreak
The great irony of love (even big, bold, spelled-out-in-capital letters LOVE) is that it always comes with a side of heartbreak.
In 1956, two artists met and fell head over paintbrush. Robert Indiana, 28 at the time, was a burgeoning pop artist — a lover of color and text who wanted to explore the power of language with his canvas.
Ellsworth Kelly, meanwhile, was a minimalist. At 33, he was slightly older than Indiana and much more stubborn about his aesthetic. A lover of color, yes — but one who didn’t believe text had any place in art. Instead, he wanted hyper-saturated, blocks of color. Shapes would tell the story in his art — not words.
In 1963, Kelly produced one of his most noteworthy works, Red Blue Green — a painting which is exactly that: a hard-edged abstract with hyper-saturated hues of red, blue, and green.
A year later, he broke things off with Indiana. The reason, according to many reports, is that he just couldn’t wrap his head around Indiana’s obsession with words-as-art. He couldn’t respect it and he said goodbye.
Fast-forward a few years later, and a wounded Indiana, out of desperation or heartbreak — or maybe a combination of both — put his own spin on Kelly’s painting, and one his former lover would surely loathe: an over-the-top, unabashed piece of pop art. Painted with hard edges and in those familiar shades of red, blue, and green.
Robert Indiana’s LOVE would go on to take various forms — postage stamps, sculptures, and other painting variations. It would become the most plagiarized work of art in American history, meaning Kelly himself likely could never quite escape it. And neither could Indiana, it seems, which makes it all the more heartbreaking: a constant reminder of the love he lost, literally spelled out for the world to see.
Speaking to NPR in 2014 — four years before his death — Indiana described how he felt about LOVE, all those years later:
“It was a marvelous idea, but it was also a terrible mistake. It became too popular; it became too popular. And there are people who don't like popularity. It's much better to be exclusive and remote. That's why I'm on an island off the coast of Maine, you see.”
Although Kelly would likely not be a fan of my own, text-based art, I still dig his stuff. Probably a little more so now that I know it inspired one of the greatest pieces of pop art of all time.
Get ready for tiny little ballet flats to be everywhere soon. These Miu Mius are high on my radar but Loeffler Randall makes a less expensive and equally chic option.
For a thick, bold and supremely easy cat eye, it does not get better than Byredo’s technical liner. This is easy to use and very chic, thanks to the mint green packaging.
I am really into an oversized button down. Hear me out: you can wear them so many ways: Tucked into high-waisted jeans; thrown over a swimsuit and left open; tied around your waist or around your shoulders (or cross-body style) to add a little color to a white tee and jeans. The Blanca button-downs are very cool. Color-blocked, perfectly oversized and just a little bit more unique than what you might be used to.
For game night in: Yahtzee, but make it fashun. In other words, YATZY.
For cocktails, La Croix over ice, or just plain tap water, we all need these tumblers, by Stories. Damn these are sexy.
Recommended reading/listening:
Customs officials in Spain recently seized a $460,000 Picasso painting in Ibiza.
Dying to try this iced Einspänner (which is a salty-meets-sugary Viennese coffee drink) recipe.
PEOPLE caught up with the production designer of Only Murders in the Building (one of my fave shows) to get the deets on Oliver’s apartment.
Netflix’s new Untold series is kind of like ESPN’s 30 for 30 series, in that it delves into niche sports stories with a more even hand. The first, two-part episode, on the Manti Te’o catfishing scandal, was terrific. Highly, highly recommend.
And I’ll leave you with this….