Anne 1977

Robert Indiana made "Anne," sometime in the 20th Century, with graphic, flat colour. It reminds me that artmaking is a process of decision-making and it's not like one decision is better than another, it's just a choice. The surface is smooth, and the colors are bold. The image pops with teal and green. Check out the lines that make up the folds in the dress, they’re so precise and deliberate. It's the kind of line that seems to have no ‘mistakes’, because the artist has embraced the nature of their material. When I make paintings, I have to make peace with the qualities of the paint itself, and here Indiana makes peace with the qualities of screen printing. It’s like Indiana is saying, "Here's what I can do with this process, and I'm going to own it." This approach has echoes in the work of Corita Kent, another artist who really knew how to celebrate the medium of print. These works embrace ambiguity and multiple interpretations over fixed meanings, they are always open to new readings.