For Robert Indiana, LOVE was the message | Jonathan Jones

The undying fame of Indiana’s artwork is proof that love still has blazing energy as a political force

Love is just a four letter word – and it was a much ruder one when Robert Indiana, who has died aged 89, first thought up the work of art that was to define him and an entire decade. Indiana’s 1966 pop masterpiece Love originally said Fuck. Even after he changed it to the more heartwarming and universally acceptable word – he would spend the rest of his life turning it into sculptures and even adapting it to Hope to support Barack Obama – there was a secret meaning to this artwork.

Love is power declaimed Bishop Michael Curry in an address at the royal wedding that invoked the spirit of the 1960s

Related: Pop artist Robert Indiana, creator of LOVE, dies aged 89

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