Lincoln Cathedral c. 20th century

Curator: We're looking at Kenneth John Conant's "Lincoln Cathedral," housed here at the Harvard Art Museums. It's a pencil drawing, about 25 by 23 centimeters. Editor: The cathedral appears almost ghostlike, ethereal, emerging from a dense field of what looks like, perhaps, wheat? It has a strange, somber quality to it. Curator: Absolutely. Lincoln Cathedral has been a site of pilgrimage and power for centuries, a visual representation of spiritual authority and, at times, colonial ambition. The cathedral represents a place of stability, yet the medium, pencil, is so very fragile. Editor: The very means of production feel critical. It's a study, an act of labor in capturing this imposing structure. What was Conant trying to explore through the act of drawing? Curator: Perhaps considering the weight of history and its impact on the present. Who had access to create art like this and what meanings do buildings such as these have today? Editor: It's like the drawing is both a celebration of and a meditation on the cathedral’s physical and symbolic presence. Curator: Precisely, and the drawing style invites us to reflect on our own relationship with these historical structures. Editor: It certainly makes one ponder the act of observation itself, doesn't it?