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Robert Indiana, Robert Creeley, and others

Numbers

1967

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Numbers

1967

Physical Qualities Bound volume with color screenprints and letterpress, Book: 251 x 212 x 12 mm. (9 7/8 x 8 3/8 x 1/2 in.)
Credit Line Purchase with exchange funds from Bequest of Blanche Adler
Object Number 1990.38
Robert Creeley met Robert Indiana and Bill Katz in 1967. The three worked together on a portfolio entitled "Stamped Indelibly" with a group of other artists before embarking on "Numbers", the brainchild of Katz. Creeley wrote poems in response to Indiana’s earlier and now-archetypal Pop Art number paintings (based on stencil designs). In the book, the numbers one through nine are followed by zero. The sequence of the pages was thoughtfully arranged in threes so that for each number, one first reads a corresponding poem by Creeley printed on textured, oatmeal-colored paper in English and German before experiencing the jolt of seeing one of Indiana’s brightly-colored screenprints. Here are the lines from the last third of Creeley’s poem “Three.”
Jan Howard, BMA, "Marking the Decades: Prints 1960-1990," February 23- April 26, 1992.

Rena Hoisington, BMA, "Off the Shelf: Modern and Contemporary Artists' Books," May Gallery, March 12 - June 25, 2017.

Artist

Robert Indiana

1927–2017

born New Castle, IN 1928; died Vinalhaven, ME 2018
Meet Robert Indiana

Author

Robert Creeley

1925–2004

American, 1926-2005
Meet Robert Creeley

Printer (prints)

Domberger KG

2000–2000

Meet Domberger KG

Explore the Collection Further

Robert Indiana
No. 7
1965
Charles Gaines and Paulson Fontaine Press
Numbers and Trees, Tiergarten Series 3: Tree #6, September
2017
Charles Gaines and Paulson Fontaine Press
Numbers and Trees, Tiergarten Series 3: Tree #4, July
2017
Robert Indiana
Hug
1962
Charles Gaines and Paulson Fontaine Press
Numbers and Trees, Tiergarten Series 3: Tree #2, May
2017
Robert Indiana
55555 (Graduation Announcement for William Katz)
1964
Charles Gaines and Paulson Fontaine Press
Numbers and Trees, Tiergarten Series 3: Tree #1, April
2017
Robert Indiana
The Great American Dream: Baltimore, 1967
1966
James McNeill Whistler
Plate XXIII from the book "A Catalogue of Blue and White Porcelain forming the collection of Sir Henry Thompson (London: Elllis and White, 1878)," which reproduces pen and ink drawings by Whistler. One of a series of proofs, lacking the printed plate numbers and identifying numbers, of these illustrations in the Lucas Collection.
1877
Robert Indiana
The American Eat
1962
Ann Ackers
Alphabets, Numbers, Birds, and Trees
1772