The Groove 167 - Three Mistakes to Avoid in Your Creative Career
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THREE MISTAKES TO AVOID IN YOUR CREATIVE CAREER
If you are an artist who can make a living out of selling your work, you are an entrepreneur. If you are an entrepreneur, you can get extra benefits if you let yourself think and dream like an artist and use that freedom to apply fresh ideas to your business.
The point of writing my book and these weekly issues of The Groove has always been to prove that business and art don’t belong in separate buckets, that creative thinking and business thinking are intertwined and need each other. And while I always highlight attitudes and behaviors that you could emulate or at least consider, today’s reflection is about what not to do.
The career of Robert Indiana (born Robert Clark in Newcastle, Indiana in 1928) was an amalgamation of paradoxes that entailed commercial and artistic success, coupled with the rejection that came from curatorial snobbery, a hostile attitude of self-absorption and a few very bad business decisions. Here are three of his very costly (and avoidable) mistakes:
Don’t Disdain the Business
Robert Indiana in 1971 in Central Park in front of one of his many “LOVE” sculptures.
Having a head for business doesn’t require an MBA. Wanting to learn is all that’s needed. And having the humility to ask for help when you don’t know also counts as a sound business decision.
From Michelangelo Buonarroti to Andy Warhol, thousands of artists over many centuries have shattered the myth of the starving artist. In fact, Indiana himself died in 2018 with an estate valued at $100 million. But it could’ve been a lot more than that. His career could’ve been what he dreamt it to be.
What started as a Christmas card collaboration with MoMA turned into Indiana’s greatest asset and his worst nightmare.
Indiana was living in New York in 1965 and had had two unsuccessful shows in the basement of the leading gallerist Martha Jackson when the director of MoMA, Alfred Barr, walked in and purchased The American Dream, I for the museum’s collection. This opened the door for the museum to ask the artist to submit a proposal for MoMA’s Christmas cards to be sold as merchandise.
The 1965 MoMA card that launched Robert Indiana’s career.
The artist knew exactly what to present: one of his “LOVE” paintings. Originally, the work had been conceived in 1964 when Indiana had created a card for his on-and-off romantic interest, Ellsworth Kelly, but instead of the word “LOVE” it said “F*CK”. Of course, Indiana reconsidered the lack of poetry in the original version and traded it for what we now all know. The work consists of the letters L and O over the letters V and E in bold Didone type; the O is slanted sideways: “LOVE”.
Well, this thing caught on fire. The red, blue, and green version was the image selected by MoMA as its 1965 Christmas card, and it became the most profitable card the museum has ever sold. Later, the United States Postal Service asked Indiana to use the “LOVE” image for Valentine's Day 1973, and blindly signing a bad contract, Indiana got paid $1,000 for a series that has been printed and reprinted on more than 330 million stamps.
But Robert Indiana did capitalize on “LOVE” (as he also made large and medium size sculptures that can be seen everywhere around the world), but not to the extent he should have. Why? Because he never copyrighted the design. He fatally said: “I'm not a businessman; I'm an artist.” Soon enough “LOVE” became one of the most plagiarized images of all time, from t-shirts to coffee mugs to fridge magnets. In the eyes of the art establishment of the 1970s, “LOVE” had cheapened the work and made Indiana look like a one-trick pony.
How would this story have played out if Indiana turned to a trusted lawyer and asked for advice?
Don't Let Others Be in Control of Your Narrative
Robert Indiana “AMOR” conceived 1998, fabricated 2006 at the National Art Gallery in Washington, DC.
Controlling your narrative involves actively shaping how others perceive you or a situation. It includes being mindful of your actions, communicating clearly, and being proactive in sharing your perspective to ensure it aligns with how you want to be seen or understood.
I’m not saying that if someone appropriates an image and profits from it that should be applauded, but thanks to these reproductions, Indiana went from an unknown midwestern artist to a national treasure because of how much his “LOVE” design spread out. This should have been a platform for Indiana to capitalize, to celebrate the success of “LOVE” and pivot the attention of curators to the depth of all of his other works. He could offer the always cash-strapped museums special and unique limited-edition drops of merchandise for their shops.
However, Indiana lost control of his narrative and decided not to retake it. He saw himself as a hard-edge painter and was somehow disgusted by the idea of being a “pop” artist. His ego was too wounded to continue rolling with the punches. So he packed up his New York loft in 1978 and moved to Vinalhaven, an island 12 miles off the coast of Maine. He separated himself from everything and everyone.
While he did continue working and milking the design of “LOVE” (later making sculptures in several color variations of the word and in different languages, then using other terms such as “HOPE”), instead of looking at his bank account and his legendary status, Indiana harbored bitterness and resentment. ”’Love' cinched my whole career, it put me on the map… but, it has also caused me grief and unhappiness, rip-offs and endless unpleasantness."
Don’t Forget to Vet the Company You Keep
Robert Indiana’s retrospective “Beyond Love” at the Whitney Museum in 2013.
Social isolation has been proven to generate cognitive declines in people who decide to shut themselves off to the world. Which is exactly what Indiana did. He not only lost his edge but seemingly his intuitive compass too. Even as he kept working and producing art, by the 1990s he was almost forgotten until the intervention of art dealer Simon Salama-Caro, who perfectly knew the historical value of Indiana’s work. Salama-Caro brought him a contract where the Morgan Art Foundation (which is actually a for-profit company) became Indiana’s agent and for an exchange for royalties, the artist let Morgan produce and sell limited editions of his most celebrated works, including "LOVE."
As the deal under Morgan became quite profitable and with the career boost that came with Indiana’s 2013 retrospective at The Whitney Museum, suddenly there was too much money to be made. So others started to make inroads and took advantage of Indiana’s age and isolation. A series of missteps, which included new paintings and more sculptures with vain and unpoetic words such as “WINE”, culminated with a series of lawsuits that have been ongoing since before Indiana’s death. The lawyers, the estate, the caretaker, an art dealer, and the Morgan company are all entangled in them.
There’s this idea of “I am the artist, let me be a bohemian” that sounds romantic in books or movies, but in real life has tremendous consequences for any creative career. Indiana fared well in terms of money, but what could’ve been a spectacular career instead ended like an episode of “True Crime”.
Indiana’s declaration “I’m not a businessman” had ramifications and consequences that have outlived him and tainted his market and legacy. It serves as a cautionary tale about how crucial it is for artists and designers to protect their artistic integrity while understanding and carefully navigating the complexities of the business side.
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