By Lori DeBoer
Been looking for love in all the wrong places? Well, there’s a whole lotta love these days at the Civic Center Mall in Scottsdale. The newly-acquired “Love” sculpture, towering 12-feet high and made of metal, can make anyone swoon.
Artist Robert Indiana created an American icon when he stacked this four-letter word and tipped the “o.” For the public, it was love at first sight, gracing greeting cards, posters, t-shirts, jewelry and, in 1973, the first love stamp issued by the United States Post Office.
The Scottsdale Center for the Arts scored big with this purchase, paying $250,000 for an edition worth nearly twice that. Only five versions of this edition exist; one adorns New York City, another the City of Brotherly Love. As Indiana told Valarie Vadala-Homer, curator of collections and public art, “There is no love west of the Mississippi and you guys have to have some.”
In addition to luring serious art lovers, the sculpture’s sure to be a hot spot for popping the question, tying the knot or snapping romantic photos. There’s even talk about doing a poetry reading at its feet on Valentine’s Day.
For information, call (480) 874-4604 or visit www.scottsdalearts.org.
This article originally appeared in Phoenix Magazine, February 2003.
