Robert Indiana

The Figure Five (From Decade Portfolio of ten prints), 1971
Screenprint

Signed, dated and numbered in pencil 58/200
Published by Multiples, Inc., New York & Los Angeles

Museum purchase assisted by the National Endowment for the Arts, 1975

Robert Indiana’s The Figure Five is easily one of the most enigmatic artworks in the WFMA’s permanent collection. Even without an understanding of the multiple allusions in the work, one can still enjoy its many geometric shapes, bold lines, bright colors, oddly paired three-letter words, and that strange triad of floating number fives, which seem to add a certain perspective and depth to an otherwise flat image. Add to these things Indiana’s self-lineage-making, and The Figure Five takes on a multitude of art-historical, autobiographical, and extra-literary meanings. We’ll explore those things here.

Lee Krasner