The Color Green

Stroking my chin, I gazed at the completely black painted canvas before me. Was this one different from the last three I had seen scattered throughout the exhibition? Perhaps. I looked closer and tilted my head, modeling the behavior of the posh art critic that had just walked up beside me. And then I saw it, this painting had a different blocks of black.

As I walked through Art Basel, apparently the largest and most important art show in the world, I struggled at times to understand the symbolism that was supposed to move me. I've always had this problem. When reading The Great Gatsby in school, I could not understand why the color green was so very significant. "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter - tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther … So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." (The Great Gatsby 115). Beautiful prose, and I understand the purpose of the light. But why did I have to analyze the color green?

I soon stumbled upon a piece of art I could easily understand. It was colorfully painted, the primary color a light blue. However, at each of the four corners, there were rifts in the paining, and the entire canvas was covered in staples. At first, I only thought, "pretty colors." That was until I read the title, American Optimism. The purpose of the hundreds of staples clicked; they represented an attempt to keep American optimism and perhaps, in some cases, illusion alive when it has been challenged so often the last decade. Did I understand what this artist was saying?

Sometimes I wonder just how much meaning should we give to artwork, music, and things. It seems that with every tangible, hundreds of intangibles can be attached to explain its significance. However, are things really so complex or do we over think something that was simply meant to be beautiful or straightforward? I have no doubt that symbolism exists in nearly everything; thus, just how much does it affect our lives and thoughts?


This is a photo of the Münster in Basel. The figure on the left is called "the seducer," and the figure on the right is called "the seduced." If you look closely, you can see symbolism at its finest on the seducer's back. That is a snake, representative of the man poor intentions towards his seduced.