Mark Lombardi had a distinctive art that graphically depicted the connections of power, influence and money between criminals, businessmen/institutions, and politicians. Tragically, his intense concentration and obsessive record keeping had its obvious opposite of dark moments, and he tragically took his own life in the prime of his life.
As much as the savings and loan debacle and mobsters provided much fodder for Lombardi, his art could have beautifully captured the collapse of Enron (with the thousands of pages of documentation of the money trail), Worldcom, the foreclosure crisis, and recent credit crunch.
I would love to see his art continue in some way as its lessons stay true. Money, power and influence in many of these frauds and collapses have global reach with legal and illegal entities performing misconduct with a surprisingly moderate number of key players. Lombardi was able to find the "open secrets" and more subtle connections through copious amounts of research. For better or worse, Lombardi's art could have blossomed in the last decade of white collar corruption.
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