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Tainted LOVE: Philadelphia’s Robert Indiana Sculpture Painted Incorrectly for Decades

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Robert Indiana’s LOVE 15th Street and John F. Kennedy Boulevard Philadelphia, PA Copyright © 2012, Bob Bruhin. All rights reserved. (via fork.cc/14aOffj)

Robert Indiana’s famed sculpture, “LOVE” (1976), will return to its home at Philadelphia’s John F. Kennedy Plaza, better known as LOVE Park, after two years away. It spent one year at a temporary site outside City Hall as the park closed for renovations, and another indoors to undergo restoration. When it returns on February 13 — just in time for those Valentine’s Day selfies! — locals may be surprised to notice something a little different. While “LOVE” has long been painted red, green, and blue, it will instead be red, green, and purple.

Detail of “LOVE” undergoing restoration (photo courtesy City of Philadelphia’s Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy)
Because that’s how Indiana intended it. For three decades, unbeknownst to most, “LOVE” had worn the wrong look. The City of Philadelphia, which owns the sculpture, itself only found out recently.


Read more (with detailed photos of the restoration process): Tainted LOVE: Philadelphia’s Robert Indiana Sculpture Painted Incorrectly for Decades

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