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The Isolation Artist: Scandal, Deception, and the Last Days of Robert Indiana
When reclusive, millionaire artist Robert Indiana died in 2018, he left behind dark rumors and scandal, as well as an estate embroiled in lawsuits and facing accusations of fraud. Here, for the first time, are all the pieces to the bizarre true story of the artist’s final days, the aftermath, the deceptive world that surrounded him, and the inner workings of art as very big business.
“I’m not a business man, I'm an artist,” Robert Indiana said, refusing to copyright his iconic LOVE sculpture in 1965. An odd and tortured soul, an artist who wanted both fame and solitude, Indiana surrounded himself with people to manage his life and work. Yet, he frequently changed his mind and often fired or belittled those who worked with him. By 2008, when Indiana created the sculpture HOPE―or did he?―the artist had signed away his work for others to exploit, creating doubt about whether he had even seen artwork sold for very high prices under his name.
At the time of his death, Indiana left an estate worth millions―and unsettling suspicions. There were allegations of fraudulent artwork, of elder abuse, of caregivers who subjected him to horrendous living conditions. There were questions about the inconclusive autopsy and rumors that his final will had been signed under coercion. There were strong suspicions about the freeloaders who’d attached themselves to the famous artist. “In the final hours of his life,” the author writes, “Robert Indiana was without the grace of a better angel, as the people closest to him covered their tracks and plotted their defenses.”
With unparalleled access to the key players in Indiana’s life, author Bob Keyes tells a fast-paced and riveting story that provides a rare inside look into the life of an artist as well as the often, too often, unscrupulous world of high-end art. The reader is taken inside the world of art dealers, law firms, and an array of local characters in Maine whose lives intersected with the internationally revered artist living in an old Odd Fellows Hall on Vinalhaven Island.
The Isolation Artist is for anyone interested in contemporary art, business, and the perilous intersection between them. It an extraordinary window into the life and death of a singular and contradictory American artist―one whose work touched countless millions through everything from postage stamps to political campaigns to museums―even as he lived and died in isolation, with a lack of love, the loss of hope, and lots and lots of money.
“I’m not a business man, I'm an artist,” Robert Indiana said, refusing to copyright his iconic LOVE sculpture in 1965. An odd and tortured soul, an artist who wanted both fame and solitude, Indiana surrounded himself with people to manage his life and work. Yet, he frequently changed his mind and often fired or belittled those who worked with him. By 2008, when Indiana created the sculpture HOPE―or did he?―the artist had signed away his work for others to exploit, creating doubt about whether he had even seen artwork sold for very high prices under his name.
At the time of his death, Indiana left an estate worth millions―and unsettling suspicions. There were allegations of fraudulent artwork, of elder abuse, of caregivers who subjected him to horrendous living conditions. There were questions about the inconclusive autopsy and rumors that his final will had been signed under coercion. There were strong suspicions about the freeloaders who’d attached themselves to the famous artist. “In the final hours of his life,” the author writes, “Robert Indiana was without the grace of a better angel, as the people closest to him covered their tracks and plotted their defenses.”
With unparalleled access to the key players in Indiana’s life, author Bob Keyes tells a fast-paced and riveting story that provides a rare inside look into the life of an artist as well as the often, too often, unscrupulous world of high-end art. The reader is taken inside the world of art dealers, law firms, and an array of local characters in Maine whose lives intersected with the internationally revered artist living in an old Odd Fellows Hall on Vinalhaven Island.
The Isolation Artist is for anyone interested in contemporary art, business, and the perilous intersection between them. It an extraordinary window into the life and death of a singular and contradictory American artist―one whose work touched countless millions through everything from postage stamps to political campaigns to museums―even as he lived and died in isolation, with a lack of love, the loss of hope, and lots and lots of money.
248 pages, Hardcover
First published September 7, 2021
22 people are currently reading
316 people want to read
About the author
Bob Keyes
1 book2 followersBob Keyes is an award-winning, nationally recognized arts writer and storyteller with specialties in American visual arts and the contemporary culture of New England. He has written about arts and culture for the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram since 2002.
He wrote his first book, “The Isolation Artist: Scandal, Deception, and the Last Days of Robert Indiana,” published by Godine, in 2021.
Prior to reporting in Maine, Keyes wrote about arts and culture for the Argus Leader in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and for newspapers in Connecticut and Georgia. He grew up in Massachusetts and graduated from the University of Georgia.
Keyes has received numerous awards for his writing, including the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance’s Distinguished Achievement Award for “exceptional and steadfast” contributions to the Maine literary community, and the Rabkin Prize for Visual Arts Journalism in recognition of his contributions to the national arts dialogue.
He’s a lifelong fan of the Boston Red Sox and Boston Bruins, and has spent much of his adult life attending concerts by Bob Dylan. He lives with his family in Maine.
He wrote his first book, “The Isolation Artist: Scandal, Deception, and the Last Days of Robert Indiana,” published by Godine, in 2021.
Prior to reporting in Maine, Keyes wrote about arts and culture for the Argus Leader in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and for newspapers in Connecticut and Georgia. He grew up in Massachusetts and graduated from the University of Georgia.
Keyes has received numerous awards for his writing, including the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance’s Distinguished Achievement Award for “exceptional and steadfast” contributions to the Maine literary community, and the Rabkin Prize for Visual Arts Journalism in recognition of his contributions to the national arts dialogue.
He’s a lifelong fan of the Boston Red Sox and Boston Bruins, and has spent much of his adult life attending concerts by Bob Dylan. He lives with his family in Maine.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
November 27, 2021
Robert Indiana was a successful artist, but he did not have a successful life. Upon his mysterious death in May 2018 (the actual day is disputed) the vultures who had taken his art and his personal life while he was alive made their final, lucrative moves.
How is it that a lifelong Christian Scientist died with a number of drugs in his system, and that without the intervention of the FBI this would never have been known? How can art dealer create and sell HOPE and WINE works under the Indiana name? Why did his caretaker (with a most likely coerced POA agreement) withdraw almost $700K from Indiana’s account – mostly in $100 bills? Why is it that his closest friends were shut out of his life in his final years?
Not all these questions are answerable, but there is background for you to draw your conclusions.
It would seem some crimes were committed but the only person jailed was a victim of Indiana. One lawyer had to re-imburse the estate several millions of dollars and may still be under investigation for excessive billing. Was the rest of this plundering legal? With no heirs to pursue re-dress, perhaps criminal responsibility will (or did) just go away.
This is not an easy book to read. It is not chronological. The list of characters was absolutely necessary; an index would have helped. Some topics are distributed throughout the book, but the basics aren’t stated up front. For instance, knowing Indiana’s philosophy on copyright at the beginning would have helped understand where he was coming from in his dealings with “agents”. Another example is that the purpose of The Star of Hope Foundation, while not critical to the story (as is copyright), evolves each time it comes up.
This had to be a difficult book to write. The sprawling story surely required careful weighing of legal terms, presumed relationships and what to leave in and leave out.
Fans of Robert Indiana or pop art (although Indiana said he was a sign painter and not a pop artist) will want to read this. Those with interest in legal issues and/or the marketing of art will find it interesting.
How is it that a lifelong Christian Scientist died with a number of drugs in his system, and that without the intervention of the FBI this would never have been known? How can art dealer create and sell HOPE and WINE works under the Indiana name? Why did his caretaker (with a most likely coerced POA agreement) withdraw almost $700K from Indiana’s account – mostly in $100 bills? Why is it that his closest friends were shut out of his life in his final years?
Not all these questions are answerable, but there is background for you to draw your conclusions.
It would seem some crimes were committed but the only person jailed was a victim of Indiana. One lawyer had to re-imburse the estate several millions of dollars and may still be under investigation for excessive billing. Was the rest of this plundering legal? With no heirs to pursue re-dress, perhaps criminal responsibility will (or did) just go away.
This is not an easy book to read. It is not chronological. The list of characters was absolutely necessary; an index would have helped. Some topics are distributed throughout the book, but the basics aren’t stated up front. For instance, knowing Indiana’s philosophy on copyright at the beginning would have helped understand where he was coming from in his dealings with “agents”. Another example is that the purpose of The Star of Hope Foundation, while not critical to the story (as is copyright), evolves each time it comes up.
This had to be a difficult book to write. The sprawling story surely required careful weighing of legal terms, presumed relationships and what to leave in and leave out.
Fans of Robert Indiana or pop art (although Indiana said he was a sign painter and not a pop artist) will want to read this. Those with interest in legal issues and/or the marketing of art will find it interesting.
October 3, 2021
I’m inclined to feel that the most memorable thing about Bob Keyes’ THE ISOLATION ARTIST: SCANDAL, DECEPTION AND THE LAST DAYS OF ROBERT INDIANA may be the epigraph from Kurt Vonnegut’s GOD BLESS YOU, MR. ROSEWATER that precedes Keyes’ text: “A sum of money is a leading character in this tale about people, just as a sum of honey might properly be a leading character in a tale about bees.”
Nowhere does Keyes’ journalistic prose have anything like that punch. I can tolerate slim verbal interest for a few columns in a newspaper or in a brief article in a magazine, but it becomes wearying over the length of a book.
In addition, Keyes has considerable difficulty organizing his materials, so that the book is more muddled and repetitive than necessary, granted that the details of Indiana’s life and work are and will probably remain inconclusive.
As this book lands on the shelves and gets read, reviewed and discussed, I wouldn’t want to be an art dealer with a significant investment in yet unsold works by Indiana.
December 6, 2021
I went into this read very curious about the subject matter. And I can’t tell if it was the writing or the content, but I just could not get into a groove with this book. It was repetitive, circling back in the timeline, without purpose. Robert Indiana is arguably a fairly unlikable guy, but I normally have a soft spot for such characters, and in this text I just didn’t get a real good sense of him. As a person. Not much here to hold onto.
Confusing at times and often boring.
Confusing at times and often boring.
September 28, 2021
I found this look at the legal battles involving the Indiana estate both tragic and fascinating. Keyes has extensively researched this case and, as a nationally recognized arts writer, he brings his expertise on the art world in general and Indiana in particular into his research. We will probably never have the answers to all the mysteries surrounding Indiana’s death, yet Indiana’s art lives on. I am hoping that someday the Star of Hope Lodge will become a part of the Farnsworth Museum in the same way that the Olson House has. Unfortunately, however, there seem to be more people scheming to take money and art from the estate than there are people who wish to secure Indiana’s legacy.
February 4, 2022
I was very disappointed with this book as I heard about it on PBS and was interested in Robert Indiana. It was poorly written, poorly edited (if at all) and so repetitive (reminding me about something from the previous page as if I forgot) and it just didn't hold my attention. Lots of gossip, lots of greed and certainly not a page turner as written on the inside jacket. Why no photos of Robert? None of his work or the Star of Hope. That would have been worthwhile.
October 17, 2021
It must have been a difficult chore for Bob Keyes to keep track of all the sordid people surrounding Robert Indiana in the last few years of his life. He isolated himself much of his life but nothing to compare to the locked doors which kept out everyone but those few who took control of his art, his money and his health in the end. The fact that Bob met and interviewed Indiana in earlier days gives balance to the story of the sad end to the artists life.
October 17, 2021
Artists see the world differently. They eat, breathe and create on their own terms. In return, art admirers — even the novice “want to be” critics — still gaze upon an artist’s life seeking answers to questions: What was it that motivated them? What places inspired their work? What were their passions, demons, the obsessions that propelled them into notoriety or obscurity?
For those seeking answers about the iconic artist Robert Indiana, 1928-2018, one needs to look no further than Bob Keyes’ exceptional debut, The Isolation Artist: Scandal, Deception, and the Last Days of Robert Indiana. An award-winning journalist for over 40 years, Keyes is a nationally recognized arts writer since 2002 with the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram. He grew up in Massachusetts and lives with his family in Maine.
There is a reflexive pause usually followed by a question when the artist named Robert Indiana is mentioned. Who? The answer then goes something like this: You know, the LOVE sculpture, the O slanted next to the L on top of the letters V and E. It is, to be frank, an embarrassing moment when one realizes they always knew the art but not the artist.
“Islands have a way of keeping their secrets and protecting their own.” — Bob Keyes
Islands are mysterious. Robert Indiana is in many ways an enigma, having lived on islands from his early days as an artist in Brooklyn, creating the pop art image LOVE in 1964; then, in 1978, moving into the largest building on Maine’s Vinalhaven island to live and work. It is here, over many years, that he slowly subtracts himself from the equation of life. In his last 10 years, Indiana gradually becomes a recluse, allowing only a few business people and friends into his “contained” world inside a very big building.
“Robert Indiana fled New York because he’d grown to feel betrayed and maligned in the city. On Vinalhaven, he might have hidden out, or maybe even faded away. But instead, he chose as his home the grandest structure on the island, the elegant 12-room Star of Hope Lodge, a former Odd Fellows Hall that towered over the harbor, visible to visitors as they arrived by public ferry.”
In 2008, a party on Vinalhaven — celebrating Indiana’s 80th birthday — ironically mirrors a resurgence of Indiana’s career with his sculpture HOPE. It is also the year the nation elects Barack Obama president, and Indiana’s HOPE image is used as the campaign’s symbol. The years from 2008 to 2018 are where Keyes begins the task of piecing together both the world of an artist and the fast-paced, often brutal machinations of art as pure business. Lawyers, art dealers, art agents, warped ethics and questionable loyalties amidst a backdrop of deceit, betrayal and potential fraud of a life’s work now valued in the millions are the breadth of Keyes’ investigative look inside the life of an acerbic, egotistical artist “who avoided conflict, yet constantly created it by making things difficult.”
Then there is the artist’s suspicious death. Indiana was a Christian Scientist and believed in no medical interventions, yet, upon an autopsy at the request of the FBI who was looking into forged artwork, multiple palliative care drugs were found in his system. Lastly, the date of his actual death remains in question. Was it May 19 — as local police and the medical examiner maintain? Or was it May 18, the day his longtime art dealer filed a lawsuit against him? Indiana’s cause of death remains undetermined.
Keyes knew Indiana personally, logging over a half dozen interviews, beginning in 2002 up until 2016 when they last spoke. Sifting through archives of documents, court records, medical records and other interviews, Keyes lifts the curtain on many questions and provides details about those closest to the artist prior to his death — both friends and other savory characters — in what he calls “a tragedy of Shakespearean mechanizations.” Providing a chronology of events, Keyes is precise in his belief that those “actors” within Indiana’s inner circle, the island itself and the business of art all conspired in an epic play of rancor, greed and chaos.
In retrospect, one could say that the Star of Hope is Indiana’s last work of art. After his death, inside his home was a treasure trove of work, artifacts from a life, even stacks upon stacks of guarded days in newsprint. Indiana kept everything he read, especially critics’ reviews, news articles and letters about himself. Indiana kept everything he touched.
“I am an artist, not a business man” — Robert Indiana
Only a seasoned journalist could have written this story, and Keyes clearly hits the mark. The book is about a news story within a much larger story. It is, in a sense, a snapshot biography meticulously revealed through the last days of an artist’s life and hopefully a work that will help clarify this artist’s legacy — one that contributed to the art world with bright shiny moments of creative genius, amidst the plight of abuse, hidden agendas and disloyalty in the end by those closest to him.
For those seeking answers about the iconic artist Robert Indiana, 1928-2018, one needs to look no further than Bob Keyes’ exceptional debut, The Isolation Artist: Scandal, Deception, and the Last Days of Robert Indiana. An award-winning journalist for over 40 years, Keyes is a nationally recognized arts writer since 2002 with the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram. He grew up in Massachusetts and lives with his family in Maine.
There is a reflexive pause usually followed by a question when the artist named Robert Indiana is mentioned. Who? The answer then goes something like this: You know, the LOVE sculpture, the O slanted next to the L on top of the letters V and E. It is, to be frank, an embarrassing moment when one realizes they always knew the art but not the artist.
“Islands have a way of keeping their secrets and protecting their own.” — Bob Keyes
Islands are mysterious. Robert Indiana is in many ways an enigma, having lived on islands from his early days as an artist in Brooklyn, creating the pop art image LOVE in 1964; then, in 1978, moving into the largest building on Maine’s Vinalhaven island to live and work. It is here, over many years, that he slowly subtracts himself from the equation of life. In his last 10 years, Indiana gradually becomes a recluse, allowing only a few business people and friends into his “contained” world inside a very big building.
“Robert Indiana fled New York because he’d grown to feel betrayed and maligned in the city. On Vinalhaven, he might have hidden out, or maybe even faded away. But instead, he chose as his home the grandest structure on the island, the elegant 12-room Star of Hope Lodge, a former Odd Fellows Hall that towered over the harbor, visible to visitors as they arrived by public ferry.”
In 2008, a party on Vinalhaven — celebrating Indiana’s 80th birthday — ironically mirrors a resurgence of Indiana’s career with his sculpture HOPE. It is also the year the nation elects Barack Obama president, and Indiana’s HOPE image is used as the campaign’s symbol. The years from 2008 to 2018 are where Keyes begins the task of piecing together both the world of an artist and the fast-paced, often brutal machinations of art as pure business. Lawyers, art dealers, art agents, warped ethics and questionable loyalties amidst a backdrop of deceit, betrayal and potential fraud of a life’s work now valued in the millions are the breadth of Keyes’ investigative look inside the life of an acerbic, egotistical artist “who avoided conflict, yet constantly created it by making things difficult.”
Then there is the artist’s suspicious death. Indiana was a Christian Scientist and believed in no medical interventions, yet, upon an autopsy at the request of the FBI who was looking into forged artwork, multiple palliative care drugs were found in his system. Lastly, the date of his actual death remains in question. Was it May 19 — as local police and the medical examiner maintain? Or was it May 18, the day his longtime art dealer filed a lawsuit against him? Indiana’s cause of death remains undetermined.
Keyes knew Indiana personally, logging over a half dozen interviews, beginning in 2002 up until 2016 when they last spoke. Sifting through archives of documents, court records, medical records and other interviews, Keyes lifts the curtain on many questions and provides details about those closest to the artist prior to his death — both friends and other savory characters — in what he calls “a tragedy of Shakespearean mechanizations.” Providing a chronology of events, Keyes is precise in his belief that those “actors” within Indiana’s inner circle, the island itself and the business of art all conspired in an epic play of rancor, greed and chaos.
In retrospect, one could say that the Star of Hope is Indiana’s last work of art. After his death, inside his home was a treasure trove of work, artifacts from a life, even stacks upon stacks of guarded days in newsprint. Indiana kept everything he read, especially critics’ reviews, news articles and letters about himself. Indiana kept everything he touched.
“I am an artist, not a business man” — Robert Indiana
Only a seasoned journalist could have written this story, and Keyes clearly hits the mark. The book is about a news story within a much larger story. It is, in a sense, a snapshot biography meticulously revealed through the last days of an artist’s life and hopefully a work that will help clarify this artist’s legacy — one that contributed to the art world with bright shiny moments of creative genius, amidst the plight of abuse, hidden agendas and disloyalty in the end by those closest to him.
October 15, 2021
Bob Keyes does an excellent job in exploring the last years of artist Robert Indiana's life, a mercurial artist, who lived on the island of Vinalhaven, shunned the press and the public, made bad business deals, and let his historic Odd Fellows building, the Star of Hope, practically fall down around him. This is a well-researched and heart-wrenching story, particularly for those of us who knew and loved Indiana. He was an art visionary, as well as a kind, generous man, who made the infamous "Love" sculpture, but received very limited money for it and the various ways it was copied and marketed. Ironically, Indiana always seemed to be in search of love himself. Keyes more or less depicts the last years, of Indiana's life as the vultures swooping in, plucking a good deal of Indiana's art, taking rights to iconic pieces, and money. I gave this book a four out of five only because I did feel it was a little dry in spots...recitation of various motions, deals, transcripts, etc., without some of the life, personality, and history of the artist himself. Even so, it is a shocking tale of what can happen to an aging artist who does not have an agent or management that will oversee and protect them when they are no longer can.
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July 9, 2022
It was.. a book?
Initially I thought perhaps this book perhaps just wasn't for me. It's about an interesting person with some crazy conspiracy plot in my locale! On the other hand I don't really love grouchy celebrities, rich people, the art scene, it's kind of a yucky mess on theme and the execution was.. kind of slovenly.
For all the great research and work that went into this book it's very uncohesive & meandering. Every ten pages goes over the same 40-70 years with a little anecdote or snippet of dialogue, but nothing ever goes anywhere real or meaty. Even Robert for all the intrigue seems weirdly recalcitrant and unlikeable to his closest friends. There seems to be no clear effort to get to the bottom of the grifting and elder abuse, no cohesive plot, and no characterisation. If it's not biographical, and it's not a thriller what have we got?
This time really reads like someone did a lot of painstaking research, then wrote 40 newspaper articles, stapled them together, and sent them off to the editor. "C" for effort.
Initially I thought perhaps this book perhaps just wasn't for me. It's about an interesting person with some crazy conspiracy plot in my locale! On the other hand I don't really love grouchy celebrities, rich people, the art scene, it's kind of a yucky mess on theme and the execution was.. kind of slovenly.
For all the great research and work that went into this book it's very uncohesive & meandering. Every ten pages goes over the same 40-70 years with a little anecdote or snippet of dialogue, but nothing ever goes anywhere real or meaty. Even Robert for all the intrigue seems weirdly recalcitrant and unlikeable to his closest friends. There seems to be no clear effort to get to the bottom of the grifting and elder abuse, no cohesive plot, and no characterisation. If it's not biographical, and it's not a thriller what have we got?
This time really reads like someone did a lot of painstaking research, then wrote 40 newspaper articles, stapled them together, and sent them off to the editor. "C" for effort.
March 13, 2022
This book’s details are totally baffling. How in the world did Indiana attract such rotten people? I was completely lost in the lawsuit details and money stuff. I could tell that Keyes is a great writer and wanted to tell a deeper story about Indiana, but also wanted to get the facts straight. In the end, the facts really weighed this story down. There’s so much going on here and he really did some incredible research and journalism. It’s a VERY tragic story and I’m not sure I like Indiana very much at all now.
July 11, 2024
I thought this fine piece of investigative journalism into what is a complicated story quite possibly without any completely knowable conclusions was fascinating and well-written. Especially well researched. What a mess the Robert Indiana estate story has been, and the author unravels that mess and shines light on a host of characters from lawyers to Robert Indiana to the NY art world. This work of non-fiction reads like a great detective story and I was so impressed with how the author unfurled his narrative. Highly recommend.
May 17, 2022
A quick read that still doesn’t answer most of the questions we on the island have.
December 19, 2023
Great mystery/true crime/reality drama read if you find the art world interesting. This one was worth the price of a small publishing house hard cover order.
May 15, 2025
Did not finish. Hands down one of the worst books I’ve ever not read.
December 23, 2021
A Very Sad Story
The author provides a valuable service by providing a great deal of detail about a story that has received much media attention in inadequate bits and bites. Understandably, his reporting has been limited by who was willing to say what, where those responding were both personally involved and often principles in litigation as well. The result is both informative, for what it adds to the mass media reporting, and frustrating for what - also understandably - it does not.
At the same time, it’s a rather frustrating “he said/she said” account that does not take sides on many of the key facts that the author reports from the viewpoint of the diverse characters who were directly involved. For example, he reports that a key player in the final scenes of Indiana’s life suggested that the auto-signature machine used to sign Indiana’s art work during his final years might have signed his last will as well. I personally know and respect the individuals who witnessed that will and have no reason to doubt their veracity. The author could have stated a similar conclusion while recording the suspicions of others he interviewed, qualifying their viewpoint by their historical frustrations and their roles in the chaotic unwinding of the artist’s final days.
Still, the author accurately captures the reality of an artist universally acknowledged to be both artistically brilliant and personally difficult, both frustrated and self-defeating, and tragically never able to reconcile his hopes for artistic recognition with the critical appreciation he received, no matter how close the two in fact may have been, Indiana’s rejection of an invitation to the Obama White House being a cardinal example.
It’s a sad and cautionary story to read, and in the end, perhaps an exemplar of Socrates’ injunction that an unexamined life is not worth living.
For whatever reason, despite Robert’s unique insight into the society his art reflected, his own place in the artistic community remained, to him, conflicted and obscure. That failure cast a pall over the last decades of his life, and this book lays bare the personal toll it took on Robert Indiana’s life in its sad, final years while too many, including those who may have genuinely cared for him, took advantage of his failings for their personal enrichment.
At the end of the day, it’s a Dickensian tale of human failings without the moral redemption one craves for in the final chapter.
And a sad story indeed.
The author provides a valuable service by providing a great deal of detail about a story that has received much media attention in inadequate bits and bites. Understandably, his reporting has been limited by who was willing to say what, where those responding were both personally involved and often principles in litigation as well. The result is both informative, for what it adds to the mass media reporting, and frustrating for what - also understandably - it does not.
At the same time, it’s a rather frustrating “he said/she said” account that does not take sides on many of the key facts that the author reports from the viewpoint of the diverse characters who were directly involved. For example, he reports that a key player in the final scenes of Indiana’s life suggested that the auto-signature machine used to sign Indiana’s art work during his final years might have signed his last will as well. I personally know and respect the individuals who witnessed that will and have no reason to doubt their veracity. The author could have stated a similar conclusion while recording the suspicions of others he interviewed, qualifying their viewpoint by their historical frustrations and their roles in the chaotic unwinding of the artist’s final days.
Still, the author accurately captures the reality of an artist universally acknowledged to be both artistically brilliant and personally difficult, both frustrated and self-defeating, and tragically never able to reconcile his hopes for artistic recognition with the critical appreciation he received, no matter how close the two in fact may have been, Indiana’s rejection of an invitation to the Obama White House being a cardinal example.
It’s a sad and cautionary story to read, and in the end, perhaps an exemplar of Socrates’ injunction that an unexamined life is not worth living.
For whatever reason, despite Robert’s unique insight into the society his art reflected, his own place in the artistic community remained, to him, conflicted and obscure. That failure cast a pall over the last decades of his life, and this book lays bare the personal toll it took on Robert Indiana’s life in its sad, final years while too many, including those who may have genuinely cared for him, took advantage of his failings for their personal enrichment.
At the end of the day, it’s a Dickensian tale of human failings without the moral redemption one craves for in the final chapter.
And a sad story indeed.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews