![Untitled [Sex Anyone]](https://collections.uag.pitt.edu/media/collectiveaccess/images/9/0/86265_ca_object_representations_media_9095_large.jpg)
Collection of the University of Pittsburgh Art Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA.
1977.3.2
Untitled [Sex Anyone]
1964 (Date created)
Screenprint
11.5 in W
x
16.25 in H
(Paper)
American
The untitled print, often known as "Sex Anyone" after the text that dominates the image, was part of the 1964 print portfolio One-Cent Life. On a flat yellow background, the image shows parted red lips inside which is inserted a flipped question mark. Even given its placement away from the "Sex Anyone" provocation, the question mark suggests to the audience that the phrase is a question rather than a statement. The garish palette and simple design suggest the aesthetics of advertising, juxtaposing text and image like a commercial poster or shop widow sign. Indiana’s use of the stencil-style typography furthers the sense that the poster’s question is an effort to sell a product. In the original portfolio, this image faced Walasse Ting’s poem So Many Lonely, which describes a female prostitute offering sex to the male narrator.
Like many prints from One Cent Life, the copy of this print held in the UAG collection was removed from an unknown copy of the portfolio. A full copy of the portfolio is held in the collection of the Frick Fine Arts Library. Indiana made two works for the portfolio, part of a total 62 prints by artists including Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Sam Francis. The project was coordinated by Chinese-American poet and artist Walasse Ting, who wrote the poems for the portfolio. Many of the prints in the publication sexualize women’s bodies, often depicting them in fetishized or submissive positions. To equivalent ends, Ting’s poems use language referring to women as flowers.
Pop artist Robert Indiana is best known for his stacked LOVE graphic reproduced in countless prints and sculptural objects since its creation in 1964, the same year as this work. The LOVE design became an icon of 1960s counterculture, tapping into the spirit of the 1967 "Summer of Love," and the slogan "Make Love Not War" used to protest the Vietnam War. The utopian fantasies of "free love" and the sexual revolution are powerfully suggested by the provocation of Untitled [Sex Anyone]. As a gay man, changing social attitudes towards sex were of particular relevance to Indiana’s own life. But [Sex Anyone] does not discriminate in its request, and should not be reduced to a matter of Indiana’s own sexuality. As Susan Elizabeth Ryan has explained, "Indiana’s homosexuality adds a significant subtext" to his work, but "it seems unlikely that his sexuality was the sole of determining factor in the development of his sixties work.”[1]
When taken out of the context of the portfolio and the poem beside which it originally appeared, this print acquires different connotations. The use of the word “anyone” makes public what is often considered an extremely intimate act. Without the poem there is more ambiguity about the phrase's context, however the text does encourage the viewer to assume it relates to something sexual. The text strips the potential coyness from the piece to instead address the explicitly sexual intent that colored lips have often served to signify. Indiana’s red lipstick might even be understood to allude to the feminist movement of 1960s, or the idea that lipstick only serves as a way to please men.[2]
[1] “Making Autobiography.” Robert Indiana: Figures of Speech, by Susan Elizabeth. Ryan, Yale University Press, 2000, p. 26.
[2] Mitchell, Claudia; Jacqueline Reid-Walsh (2007-12-30). Girl Culture: An Encyclopedia. Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing. pp.396–397.
Author: Gillian Carver - Spring 2018
Like many prints from One Cent Life, the copy of this print held in the UAG collection was removed from an unknown copy of the portfolio. A full copy of the portfolio is held in the collection of the Frick Fine Arts Library. Indiana made two works for the portfolio, part of a total 62 prints by artists including Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Sam Francis. The project was coordinated by Chinese-American poet and artist Walasse Ting, who wrote the poems for the portfolio. Many of the prints in the publication sexualize women’s bodies, often depicting them in fetishized or submissive positions. To equivalent ends, Ting’s poems use language referring to women as flowers.
Pop artist Robert Indiana is best known for his stacked LOVE graphic reproduced in countless prints and sculptural objects since its creation in 1964, the same year as this work. The LOVE design became an icon of 1960s counterculture, tapping into the spirit of the 1967 "Summer of Love," and the slogan "Make Love Not War" used to protest the Vietnam War. The utopian fantasies of "free love" and the sexual revolution are powerfully suggested by the provocation of Untitled [Sex Anyone]. As a gay man, changing social attitudes towards sex were of particular relevance to Indiana’s own life. But [Sex Anyone] does not discriminate in its request, and should not be reduced to a matter of Indiana’s own sexuality. As Susan Elizabeth Ryan has explained, "Indiana’s homosexuality adds a significant subtext" to his work, but "it seems unlikely that his sexuality was the sole of determining factor in the development of his sixties work.”[1]
When taken out of the context of the portfolio and the poem beside which it originally appeared, this print acquires different connotations. The use of the word “anyone” makes public what is often considered an extremely intimate act. Without the poem there is more ambiguity about the phrase's context, however the text does encourage the viewer to assume it relates to something sexual. The text strips the potential coyness from the piece to instead address the explicitly sexual intent that colored lips have often served to signify. Indiana’s red lipstick might even be understood to allude to the feminist movement of 1960s, or the idea that lipstick only serves as a way to please men.[2]
[1] “Making Autobiography.” Robert Indiana: Figures of Speech, by Susan Elizabeth. Ryan, Yale University Press, 2000, p. 26.
[2] Mitchell, Claudia; Jacqueline Reid-Walsh (2007-12-30). Girl Culture: An Encyclopedia. Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing. pp.396–397.
Author: Gillian Carver - Spring 2018
Robert Indiana (1928-2018)
Untitled [Sex Anyone], 1964
From the One-Cent Life portfolio, edition of 2000
Screenprint
1977.3.2
Indiana is best known for his stacked LOVE graphic, an icon of the sexual revolution of the 1960s. Here, an inverted question mark adds ambiguity to this print’s more explicit invitation. (This is Not Ideal, Fall 2018)
In Collection
This is not Ideal: Gender Myths and their Transformation. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh University Art Gallery. 2018. Exhibition catalogue.
Published on the occasion of the student-curated exhibition This is not Ideal: Gender Myths and Their Transformation at the University Art Gallery, University of Pittsburgh, October 26-December 7, 2018.
University Art Gallery. Frick Fine Arts Building, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh PA 15260
ISBN: 978-1-7329013-0-8
Published on the occasion of the student-curated exhibition This is not Ideal: Gender Myths and Their Transformation at the University Art Gallery, University of Pittsburgh, October 26-December 7, 2018.
University Art Gallery. Frick Fine Arts Building, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh PA 15260
ISBN: 978-1-7329013-0-8
Please note that cataloging is ongoing and that some information may not be complete.