Err (plate 9) from The International Anthology of Contemporary Engraving: The International Avant-Garde, Volume 5: America Discovered (Anthologia internazionale dell'incisione contemporanea: L'Avanguardia internazionale: Volume 5: Scoperta dell'America)
Robert Indiana
American, 1928–2018
1963, published 1964
A small photogravure-and-etching in which Robert Indiana collages a domestic photograph with oversized, stenciled letters—the wordlike fragment “ERR”—to unsettle the boundary between signage and private life.
You are struck by the image’s negative‑like tonality: a ghostly figure bent over a bed, steam from a cup, and an intrusive band of heavy, advertising‑style lettering slicing across the scene.
Made during Indiana’s early engagement with text and numbers, this work helps translate commercial typography into fine art vocabulary and anticipates Pop Art’s focus on language as subject.
Medium
Photogravure and etching from an album of 16 etchings (one with aquatint, one with drypoint, one with pencil additions), three photogravures (two with etching), and one relief halftone
Dimensions
plate: 4 3/8 x 6" (11.1 x 15.2 cm); sheet: 10 1/16 x 7 11/16" (25.5 x 19.5 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of Peter Deitsch Gallery
Accession
324.1967.9
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
