Untitled (euqestrian statue overlooking large outdoor park, people below) c. 1950

Curator: This untitled photograph by Jack Gould, held here at the Harvard Art Museums, presents an equestrian statue overlooking a park. There's something haunting about it, don't you think? Editor: Indeed. The inverted tones lend a dreamlike, almost spectral quality to the scene. The monument's form is strong and geometrically very firm, but the light subverts it, oddly. Curator: Absolutely. It’s like this symbol of power is softened, even questioned, by the lively chaos below. The figures in the park, rendered in negative, become almost like spirits themselves. Editor: The composition certainly directs our gaze, doesn't it? The statue, positioned prominently, contrasts sharply with the blurred, almost indistinguishable forms populating the landscape behind it. Curator: It makes you wonder what Gould wanted to capture – was it about power, people, or the strange interplay between the two? Editor: It's a stark and curious study.