Mark Lombardi, conceptual artist
Hyfler-Rosner
financial scandals, was found hanged in his Williamsburg (Brooklyn) loft
Wednesday, March 22.
Sometimes measuring 10 feet across, the drawings traced the convoluted
unfoldings of contemporary morality tales like the savings and loans
scandal, Whitewater, Iran-contra and the Vatican bank scandal. The small
circles in his drawings identified the main players--individuals,
corporations and governments--along a time line. The arcing lines showed
personal and professional links, conflicts of interest, malfeasance and
fraud. Solid lines traced influence, dotted lines traced assets, and wavy
lines traced frozen assets. Final denouements like court judgment,
bankruptcy and death were noted in red.
He began making these drawings in 1993, inspired by a doodled diagram he had
made while talking on the phone to a banker friend about the savings and
loan scandal.
He read many newspapers daily and culled his information entirely from
published sources, keeping track of the articles with a card file that held
over 12000 cards.
Okay, here's a small personal connection. Right now, one of these
incredible works is on view at the P.S. 1 Museum in Long Island City, NY.
It's included in the "Greater New York" show, exhibiting new and generally
younger artists. I went a couple of weeks ago, and 99.9% of the stuff was
pure crap.
The only thing that spoke to me was Lombardi's art. The card file was
there, too. I looked at this astonishing piece and realized that it was a
graphic manifestation of paranoia at best, madness at worst. It was an
incredible work of art. Today I opened the newspaper and learned that he
had (probably) killed himself. Foolish thought I had. I should have
emailed him (all the artists had been given e-mail addresses) and told him
how much it had moved me. It wouldn't have made a difference, but could it
have hurt?
Amelia