An insightful and long overdue reassessment of the full scope of the career of Robert Indiana, who combined Pop Art, hard-edged abstraction, and language-based conceptualism
Informed by literary theory and Homeric scholarship as well as biblical studies, Biblical Narrative and the Death of the Rhapsode sheds new light on the Hebrew Bible and, more generally, on the possibilities of narrative form. Robert S. Kawashima compares the narratives of the Hebrew Bible with Homeric and Ugaritic epic in order to account for the "novelty" of biblical prose narrative. Long before Herodotus or Homer, Israelite writers practiced an innovative narrative art, which anticipated the modern novelist's craft. Though their work is undeniably linked to the linguistic tradition of the Ugaritic narrative poems, there are substantive differences between the bodies of work. Kawashima views biblical narrative as the result of a specifically written verbal art that we should counterpose to the oral-traditional art of epic. Beyond this strictly historical thesis, the study has theoretical implications for the study of narrative, literature, and oral tradition. Indiana Studies in Biblical Literature -- Herbert Marks, General Editor
Indiana often calls itself the Crossroads of the Nation. It's not also perhaps the very nexus of US weirdness. Armed with Oddball Indiana, you'll soon discover the strange underbelly of the Hoosier State, from brain sandwiches to square donuts. Indiana has monuments to Michael Jackson, the comic strip character Joe Palooka, and the World's Largest Egg. It's where Alka-Seltzer and Wonder Bread were invented, where A Christmas Story actually took place, and where the good but angry citizens of Plainfield conspired to dump President Martin Van Buren in a mud puddle. Along with humorous histories and offbeat observations, Oddball Indiana provides addresses, websites, hours, fees, and driving directions for each of its 350+ entries.
In the Philadelphia neighborhood known as the Badlands, drug gangs rule absolutely. Each time a life is lost in the carnage of the local drug wars, a boldly drawn chalk outline of a body appears on the street leading up to City hall: a teenaged dealer, a priest, a little girl with a jump rope. Ofelia Santoro rides her bicycle through the dark, decaying streets, looking for her fourteen-year-old-son, Gabriel. She’s afraid of what she might find. Gabriel has fallen in with the most savage of the drug dealers, but now wants to get out—if he can. In this gritty, fast-moving novel, acclaimed Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Steve Lopez brings home the violence that is scarring America’s vast urban wastelands, and the humanity that might save them. “An unfancy prose is streaked by strong, cinematic images . . . Lopez aims to prick consciences, in the tradition of the documentary novelist, and he does so with considerable style.”—The Daily Telegraph “Lopez has done what Balzac, Dickens . . . and Dostoevsky did so masterfully: he has taken a torch to the back of the cave and returned to tell us what he has seen.” –Pete Hamill, The Philadelphia Inquirer
American artist, Robert Indiana (1928-2018) has created some of the world's most immediately recognizable works of art. His huge oeuvre spans seven decades and he first came to prominence during the 1960s.Filled with intensely personal combinations of universal symbols--numbers and letters, stars and wheels--they are most readily associated with the Pop Art movement.Including extraordinary examples of his career-defining LOVE sculpture, one of the twentieth century's most iconic works of art, this long-awaited major retrospective offers a thorough reassessment of the artist's work in sculpture, from his earliest assemblages of the 1950s to his most recent series of remarkable painted bronzes.Published after the exhibition, Robert Indiana: A Sculpture Retrospective at Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York (16 June - 23 October 2018).
"Robert Indiana's paintings are quintessential pop art. His fascination with letters and numbers, billboards, and other vernacular signage has resulted in some of the most iconic images in modern American art. Indiana's famous LOVE paintings and sculptures are perhaps his most well-known works. Now, in this long-awaited survey of Indiana's art and designs, three leading art historians examine the different periods of his life and oeuvre. The volume includes his pop culture roots--his early paintings of road signs, pinball machines, the "American Dream"--As well as his own writings and photographs. This important monograph assures Indiana's place in the art world alongside contemporaries Warhol, Lichtenstein, and Rosenquist."--Publisher's website.
A symbol of Indiana's past, the covered bridge still evokes feelings of nostalgia, romance, and even mystery. During the 19th century, over 500 of these handsome structures spanned the streams, rivers, and ravines of Indiana. Plagued by floods, fire, storms, neglect, and arson, today fewer than 100 remain. Marsha Williamson Mohr's photographs capture the timeless and simple beauty of these well-traveled structures from around the state, including Parke County—the unofficial covered bridge capital of the world. With 105 color photographs, Indiana's Covered Bridges will appeal to everyone who treasures Indiana's rich architectural heritage.