Untitled (animals in zoo band; a monkey playing the piano and smiling) c. 1950

Curator: This untitled photograph by Jack Gould, housed here at the Harvard Art Museums, presents a monkey playing the piano. Editor: My first reaction is pure whimsy, but the stark black and white adds an unexpected layer of melancholy. Curator: Indeed. The monkey, dressed in human clothes, playing the piano, evokes minstrel shows, and that carries a deeply unsettling cultural weight. Are we laughing with or at? Editor: That contrast is key. The composition, though simple, uses the piano's form to create strong verticals that cage the monkey—emphasizing the artificiality of the scene. Curator: The image reflects the cultural fascination with anthropomorphism, the projection of human qualities onto animals, a practice filled with both humor and colonial power dynamics. Editor: Precisely. It's in the tension between the playful image and its underlying structure that Gould's photograph gains its complexity. Curator: It highlights how our perception is informed by past symbolic gestures. Editor: I agree. It's a deceptively simple image that prompts us to question our assumptions about representation.