Focus on Numbers 1-0 and discuss the Historical information.
The numbers were conceived as a 1980 drawing made in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of Melvin Simon & Associates (now called Simon Property Group). Indiana accepted the commission to make the drawing specifically because it was attached to the creation of a series of corresponding, three-dimensional sculptures. At the time they were  largest and most important commission of Indiana's career. They were made with the artist's stipulation that they eventually be donated to the IMA.
Indiana's original concept was inspired by a 19th-century print “The Life and age of man, stages of man's life from the cradle to the grave” which was given to Indiana in the 1970s. In the 2002 New York Times preview of several Indiana exhibits that took place in 2003, the numbers and their colors were identified to represent the stages of man in this way: 1, red and green: birth;
2, blue and green: infancy
3, orange and blue: youth
4, red and yellow: adolescence
5, blue and white: pre-prime of life
6, red and green: prime of life
7, blue and orange: early autumn
8, orange and purple: autumn
9, yellow and black: warning
0, shades of gray: death.Indiana had been working with the 10 numbers two-dimensionally since the late 1950s, but Numbers 1-0 was his first opportunity to realize them in sculptural form. He sees each number as being both an abstract idea and a representation of the physical presence of numbers in life; he associates many significant memories from his own life with numbers.
New York Times Simon Property Group Indiana