Symbolism, a system through with visual motifs have specific meanings attached to them, has long served as a crucial way for artists to imbue subtle meaning into their artwork. Symbolism allows the informed viewer to take away a layered interpretation from a work of art. Visual symbols are often culturally specific, and their meaning may remain opaque to those outside of a culture. Symbolism is often religious in nature—Christianity, in particular, has a complex system of iconography, with specific physical attributes assigned as identifying characteristics of saints, like the breaking wheel that Catherine of Alexandria carries. In the secular realm, seventeenth century Dutch painters frequently included visual jokes and other symbolic cues in their everyday scenes. For example, dogs were used to represent fidelity, while a skull or piece of rotting fruit might serve as a reference to human mortality.

Contemporary artists continue to build on the established system of symbolism and use symbols to allude to issues in contemporary society. One artist who has used his work to make powerful symbolic statements about his native country and international human rights issues is Ai Wei Wei. His seminal 2009 work Sunflower Seeds comprised millions of handmade sunflower seeds made of porcelain, a material long associated with China. The sunflower seeds take on a multitude of meanings, symbolizing individuality amidst an enormous population, the hardship of the Cultural Revolution, and even Chairman Mao himself, who was referred to as “the red sun.” Ai and other artists have developed personal symbolic languages that repeat throughout their work. Notable among these are Jasper Johns, Keith Haring, Yves Klein, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Rashid Johnson, The visual symbols can act as a sort of signature and reinforce themes references throughout an artist’s oeuvre.