The Cultural Significance of the Color Yellow

Yellow ochre—a rich, earthy shade of the color—is one of the earliest pigments utilized by humans. It appears in a now well-known prehistoric cave painting of a horse in Lascaux. Though the product of several generations, these caves are estimated to be around 17,000 years old.

In Buddhist literature, the Buddha is said to have a golden complexion. Within the religion—which was founded 2,500 years ago—and throughout surrounding cultures, the shade is therefore associated with divinity and it often covers Buddist temples.

In many Pre-Columbian cultures of South and Central America, golden artworks and cultural items were once numerous. Though yellow and gold were central to these cultures, golden items were not highly valued for their luxuriousness or rarity because they were not rare in pre-colonial times. Still, these objects were precious and carried vital information about the cultures and peoples of this region.

This changed after the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors and the implementation of colonization. During the colonial period, material cultural items made from and coated in gold were stolen and destroyed in the European search for riches.

And, of course, Vincent van Gogh’s use of yellow has been a topic of interest and speculation for decades. Some theories verge on conspiratorial but none have been proven.

More than anything, Van Gogh’s repeated use of the color yellow seems to have been inspired by the artist’s time spent in the sun-drenched countryside of Arles.

While many of the artist's most important works—Sunflowers, The Bedroom, The Yellow House—are dominated by the color, it is important to note that the artist’s palette was not always so warm and that this type of evolution is a common occurrence in an artistic career.

Interestingly, Van Gogh’s contemporary Paul Gauguin was more clear about his own use of the color yellow and what he meant by it. The artist even stated that he used the color as a focal point in Le Christ jaune (The Yellow Christ), to represent the isolation and piety of the local peasants kneeling around the figure Jesus in this painting.