Square 1975

This "Square" print was made by Robert Indiana, sometime around the seventies, I'm guessing. Look at how he’s corralled the colours—red, yellow, blue—inside this brown square, kinda like a graphic traffic sign. What strikes me is the absolute flatness of the colours and shapes. It’s not about illusion; it’s right there on the surface. That big, bold number four, almost cartoonish, dominates the space, pushing everything else back. You can see that the ink is printed flat to the paper, with hard edges and no texture. It reminds me a bit of Fernand Léger, with those simplified, machine-like forms, but Robert Indiana gives it this American pop twist. Both artists are interested in how to flatten visual space, making shapes that seem to come forward. It’s like they're saying, "Hey, look at this form, this colour, this thing itself, and just, you know, *see* it." What does that make you think about?