The winter of 1963 marked a pivotal moment in New York when Robert Indiana introduced the photographer William John Kennedy to Andy Warhol at the Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition, Americans. The encounter set in motion a remarkable series of portraits of the young artists on the ascent as pioneers of the Pop Art movement.

Warhol and Indiana shared a close, influential friendship, having both moved to New York in the late 1950s and bonding over their shared experiences of growing up in poverty and facing homophobia. Indiana was an early ally of Warhol; he was instrumental in encouraging Warhol to transition from commercial illustration (graphic design) to fine art. Reflecting later on the genesis of this circle, Kennedy recalled that his association with the Pop artists began with his initial encounter with Robert Indiana, saying, ‘He was the catalyst.’

In this photograph, the two artists are caught in an unguarded exchange. The image functions as much as a social document as a portrait, anticipating the creatively fertile period when the artists produced some of their most iconic paintings. It fixes the informal milieu from which the young dynamism of the Pop Art movement would develop, as would the culture of the 1960s.