I had no expectations for the day once my pal, the estimable Simon, suggested YSP as our destination given the good weather. I had no idea of the show until we were pulling onto the driveway…that turned out to be the sculpture of Robert Indiana. Of course I knew of the Love logo piece…I’ve seen one version in New York, another in Berlin and, gawd help me, one at Chatsworth years back I think! Other than that it would have been hard for me to recall more than a painting or two in the standard reference books on 20c. US Art.
So imagine my surprise to find out that Robert was an early adopter of my Paintings Standing Up schtick! I’d wager that few of us here, in the UK at least, knew of the broader output of this – as it turns out – fascinating artist. The range of the sculptural work was really breathtaking. Again I have to declare my interest that much of the work deployed text, something often close to my heart as is also the case with found objects.
All in all the experience was, for me, an increasingly rare one. Many of the shows I see are highly enjoyable but relatively unsurprising but here was something totally unexpected and very rewarding. It turns out that maybe one of my recent chosen texts (taken from The Character Of Atoms by Lucretius)isn’t as cut and dried as it might appear (spoiler alert; he was right).
Plainly Painting - David Manley 
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