MuseumChick | Danee Gilmartin

This lazy Sunday I was meeting some girlfriends in midtown, NYC and while I was running to the popular brunch spot Sarabeth’s, this caught my eye. You can’t miss the bright red letters spelling “LOVE”. This Robert Indiana sculpture is the predecessor to the Cor-ten steel sculpture “AHAVA” that I recently saw at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. And even though I was late (as usual), I grabbed some pictures to show you this popular pop art sculpture.

You can find this piece on the corner of 55th Street and 6th Avenue and on a nice day you can see just how popular this sculpture is when it can take a while to get a shot without fans in it. When I was there today, there was a small line of people waiting to get their chance to sit, stand or pose with the sculpture that was a symbol for peace in a time when the United States was involved in the Vietnam War in 1966.

I don’t know these girls, but it was interesting to see this moving sculpture still drawing a crowd. As I had mentioned previously, this sculpture was originally designed as a Christmas card for the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 1964. Indiana’s original sculpture of “LOVE” is made from Cor-ten steel and was first displayed in New York City in 1970 but now lives at the Indianapolis Museum of Art (in the city where Indiana grew up).

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