Artist Gives Meaning Of Commons Painting

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

Dr. Walter Gropius was kind enough to keep me informed of any writeups on the mural which I painted for the new Commons building. I now receive a copy of the CRIMSON in which you report of the competition for a suitable title for my mural.

The title of this mural has been of great concern to me all along. If I choose a title for a painting of mine, I do not want this title to be too definite a description or definition of the picture. The title should merely support what is visually expressed. The origin of the design which you see on the wall now and of a series of similar recent paintings was the phenomenon of plant growth in spring. The mysterious appearance of plant forms and flowers in a new green world. A process that can be registered only in time intervals and for which we have no true understanding. For which, though, we may have a feeling, as for all life processes. The movement in the painting and the attempt to keep it moving may be a translation of the time element of growth. The green color is a symbol of the new plant life.

Dislikes Winning Title

Although some of the titles which were suggested are coming quite close to an interpretation of the painting, I'm not very happy about the choice of the title "The Garden of Eden". This title suggests something different and in any case Adam and Eve are missing.

When I chose the title "Verdure", I knew that this was not the best, but it was the best I could find, I was searching for a verb to suggest a state of becoming rather than a static substantive. There is one word in the German language "Entfaltung" which would be a perfect word for this picture. It incorporates all of unfolding and growing.

Without any purpose for publication, I have written a few lines on this painting. I am enclosing these here as you perhaps may be interested in printing them in your paper.

Whatever the reactions are, I am very happy that there has been so much activity and interest in this painting on the part of the students. The more thinking the painting stirs up, the happier I am. Even if understanding is at first missing, eventually the students will, by the habit of seeing it over and over again, get used to it and by experience will learn to understand and perhaps to like it. Herbert Bayer