Have you interpreted the largest secular fresco in the U.S.? It’s in town.
By a show of hands, how many of you know where you can find the largest secular fresco in the United States? Next time you walk near the main square uptown, stop in the lobby of the Bank of America Corporate Center. Due to some exterior renovations of the building, scaffolding and protective netting all but shield these beauties from the casual observer walking along Tryon Street.
The fresco was created by North Carolina’s own Ben Long in 1992 shortly after the Corporate Center was opened. Long studied under the world-renowned fresco painter Pietro Annigoni in Florence, Italy for nearly eight years and has created frescoes at many other Queen City landmarks: St. Peter’s Catholic Church (the fresco has since fallen), the dome in TransAmerica Square, First Presbyterian Church and the Law Enforcement Center.
The fresco in the lobby of the Corporate Center consists of three separate pieces, and each one is filled with many occult symbols to reveal a message about transformation. Now, I am far from the authority of the exact meaning of each symbol and polysemous messages the artist seeks to convey. But I have done some reading and have been an admirer of these works of art for some time. At nearly every instance I have time to gaze at them, I find more details that I didn’t notice previously.
To start, the message is revealed from right to left (thanks to a tip from a security guard many years ago). So, the panel on the right, “Planning/Knowledge,” contains numerous symbols referring to Freemasonry, suggesting that there are future generations of people being trained and educated for power and control. The uninitiated, or the regular folk, are symbolized by the woman in the cube, controlled by puppet strings. There is a burning bush, blowing west, with a man in a red sweater and blue jeans reading a book. My thoughts: America is deteriorating from within and we, the citizens, are too preoccupied and don’t take the time to notice.
The second panel in the middle, “Chaos/Creativity,” depicts civil unrest, protests and repression. It reminds me of a camp where people who resist the current order are held. There are people of different races as well as religious figures, held within a compound bound with barbed wire. Above I see a swirling symbol of the rich and powerful, celebrating their glory and feeding off the chaos below.
The third panel, on the left, “Making/Building,” suggests to me that the work that is needed may be done. There is certainly an emphasis of the color red. But, the workers at the bottom may be telling us the there is always work to be done. Are these workers laboring endlessly to satisfy the aristocrats? Maybe.
This is a view I have built over years of viewing these frescoes, talking with others and lightly gleaning interpretations from external sources – but, mostly, just sitting and gazing. Like all works of art, there is no one, final meaning. That is what makes public art so wonderful to take in.
Take a stroll and see these frescoes for yourself. They make me sigh in appreciation every time.
Photos: Greg Kurts
This story was originally published October 13, 2015 at 10:00 PM with the headline "Have you interpreted the largest secular fresco in the U.S.? It’s in town.."