Vinalhaven, Maine ? Robert Indiana never saw his oversized EAT sign illuminated after it went up at the New York World’s Fair in 1964. A day after being turned on, the sign with its hundreds of light bulbs was turned off because it was attracting hungry tourists who thought it was a restaurant, not a piece of art.

The EAT sign goes back on public display this month for the first time in 44 years as part of Indiana’s first major U.S. exhibition in a decade, at the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland. The sign is being installed atop the museum roof with lights flashing on five large metal discs with the letters E, A and T.

Having EAT rise again after all these years brings back memories of his mother, who at one time ran a diner and whose final dying word was “eat,” Indiana says.

“When the sign is finally turned on the roof of the Farnsworth and I see it for the first time, that will be one of my most exciting days in Maine and one of the most exciting days of my life,” he says in an interview at his studio on Vinalhaven, an island 15 miles off the Maine coast where he has lived since 1978.

‘Hard-edged artist’

Indiana, who is 80, was part of the pop art movement of the 1960s, known for his recurring use of numbers and words and bright flat colors that seem to jump off his paintings and sculptures. He cringes at the term pop artist, preferring to call himself a “hard-edged artist.”

The “Robert Indiana and The Star of Hope” exhibition, which runs June 20-Oct. 25, will feature about 80 of Indiana’s pieces spanning his career. Nearly all the work comes from his Star of Hope studio, and many of the pieces have never been publicly displayed before.

The EAT sign — five 300-pound discs, each 6 feet in diameter — is being showcased nearly 50 feet above ground level on top of the museum, where it will flash, flicker and blink from morning until late at night.

The original light bulbs have been replaced with modern light-emitting diode bulbs. The museum had a special base built so the sign can withstand winds of up to 100 mph.

Inside the museum, Indiana’s works will fill five of the 12 galleries. They include his LOVE, with the leaning O, sculptures and prints,along with his “Marsden Hartley Elegy” series and his new HOPE sculpture, which he created for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign and premiered at last summer’s Democratic National Convention.

His “Eighth American Dream” oil on canvas hangs in the museum lobby. The museum gardens will have several outdoor sculptures, including his 12-foot-by-12-foot LOVE wall and his 8-foot-high Art sculpture.