Bulls and Bears in the Market 

Curator: Welcome. This piece is titled "Bulls and Bears in the Market" by William Holbrook Beard. Let’s take a closer look, shall we? Editor: Absolutely. It's immediately chaotic. A sea of animals swirling around what I presume to be Wall Street. There's a nervous energy in the frenzied composition that's quite compelling. Curator: Compelling indeed. Beard was fascinated by the market's impact on society, choosing the very visceral metaphors of bulls and bears to express it. What’s striking is the quality of labor: the brushwork in rendering the building facade is surprisingly detailed but overall less emphasized than each animal. Editor: The artist is clearly working with archetypes. Bears, often representing decline in value and downturn in the market. Bulls, aggressively moving ahead in upward surges. Curator: It makes me consider who and what is getting hurt by either trend! The bear looks especially forlorn… like its literal skin is being torn off. We often focus on production within art, but this highlights destruction, as well. Look at the dirt, too—not merely paint. Editor: Precisely. The iconography is layered here. The animals are, in many respects, stand-ins for the human actors who either push the markets up or drag them down, it implies that basic animal instinct dictates human economics! There is definitely no romanticizing the exchange. Curator: Note how the Beaux Arts structure is almost swallowed up, physically overshadowed by this mob. Beard’s class-conscious brush exposes the tensions that existed then—and linger still, particularly around the concept of a meritocracy versus material determinism! I like to see how we might see its labor in terms of that sentiment! Editor: Ultimately, whether the painter aimed for pointed political commentary or observed a human condition doesn't lessen this symbolic weight, which is perhaps why, even now, this vision still manages to feel so alive, this painting, it does what only pictures can do. Curator: A very apt conclusion! A single image holding so many levels is a challenge to the painter and its public, but let’s simply pause now, and thank the vision in all its materials and symbolic heft.