Mark Lombardi was onto something before he committed suicide in 2000. His drawings - you could call them maps or charts, and they also have some connection with 19th-century panoramas - track global financial fiascos and related political shenanigans, mostly of the 1980's and 90's. Some drawings are as much as 10 feet wide, rather lightly marked in pencil with arrows and names: delicate spider webs of scandal, states the NY Times.
A Mark Lombardi drawing that charts various Iran-contra connections. The drawings chart the flow of money and back-room connections, as Lombardi believed he could piece them together from diverse published accounts, involving Charles H. Keating Jr. and Lincoln Savings and Loan; the Vatican bank; money laundering, drug dealing, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Bank of Commerce and Credit International; Bill Clinton, the Lippo Group and Jackson T. Stephens; George W. Bush, Jackson T. Stephens and Harken Energy; the arming of Iraq during the 1980's by Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush; and the flow of cash through Banca Nazionale del Lavoro in Italy. And so on. Let's skip the specifics, which are complicated and can be gleaned from the show's catalog, by Robert Hobbs, the curator. They are not really what make Lombardi's work compelling anyway. Or, to be more precise, Lombardi's art, while scrupulous and eye-opening, is not really about specifics, although it can first appear to be because his drawings look so meticulously made. When you look more closely you realize that the charts are hard to decipher and short on details. This is a failing only for those people who mistakenly expect Lombardi to be an investigative reporter, not an artist. read full NY Times article
