Was This Homage to Bratwurst Really Designed by Robert Indiana?

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From The New York Times:

Just how much control did the artist Robert Indiana have over his work during the last years of his life?

A lot, according to two of the artist’s associates: his caretaker in Maine, Jamie L. Thomas, and a New York art publisher, Michael McKenzie, who worked closely with the artist.

Very little, according to a lawsuit filed this spring that accused both men of exploiting Mr. Indiana’s advanced age to sell bogus artworks that they attributed to him.

One focal point of the debate has been “BRAT,” a huge sculpture said to have been Indiana’s last monumental work, designed not as a homage to an ethereal concept like Mr. Indiana’s “LOVE” or “HOPE,” but to the humble bratwurst. Skeptics said they were dubious that Mr. Indiana, who died in May at 89, actually signed off on the work commissioned last year by Johnsonville Sausage in Wisconsin.

. . . .

But the company embraced the authenticity of the sculpture, which it installed this month outside its main office in Sheboygan County. Among other things, the company said, Mr. McKenzie, acting as Mr. Indiana’s representative, had sent through a photo of the artist that depicted him as fully involved in the project.

Though the company’s owners have said they never spoke directly to Mr. Indiana, the image showed the artist sitting in a chair with a “BRAT” print in front of him.

“We’re confident in the provenance of the sculpture,” Stephanie Dlugopolski, a spokeswoman for Johnsonville, said on Monday.

Now, however, a publicist who worked for Mr. Indiana, Kathleen Rogers, has come forward with a near identical photograph that she says she received from the Indiana camp a year before the “BRAT” sculpture was commissioned. It too shows Mr. Indiana sitting at a white table with six pens and pencils arrayed to his right.

But unlike Johnsonville’s image, there is no “BRAT” print in the photo. The table is bare.

. . . .

 

“I knew I had seen that picture of Bob somewhere,” said Ms. Rogers. “I zeroed right in on it. It resonated with me. I knew it was not right.”

Shelly Stayer, who owns the sausage company with her husband, Ralph, said the dispute over the image did not diminish her confidence that Mr. Indiana had designed the sculpture. She said she had exchanged multiple emails with Mr. McKenzie and others as part of a lengthy and rigorous process that resulted in a design that she believes Mr. Indiana approved.

“We have a signed sculpture by Robert Indiana and we absolutely love it,” Ms. Stayer said. “Nothing else matters.”

Link to the rest at The New York Times

For visitors to TPV who live outside of the United States, in the upper Midwest, the home of many descendants of German immigrants, bratwurst replaces a great many other sausages (including weiners or hot dogs) as a preferred accompaniment to fairs, sporting events and other public gatherings.

However, the term, bratwurst, is almost never used. “Brat” is the universal term, as in, “a brat and a beer” or “we’ll put some brats on the grill.”

Brat is pronounced like brought and not like the term used to describe a nasty child.

So, of course, a wealthy sausage manufacturer would be willing to pay for a Robert Indiana sculpture based on the word, brat.

“When I am holding a brat, my mouth gets jealous of my hand.”