Art Lies, Volume 41, Winter 2003 Page: 92

                                
NEW YORK VIEW
Mark Lombardi: Global Networks
The Drawing Center
D. Dominick Lombardi

Powerful individuals are playing games with our lives,
our money and our security-and Marl< Lombardi
had the proof. From 1994 until his suicide in 2000,
Lombardi created schematic drawings- Narrative
Structures as he called them-based on countless
hours of research connecting webs of seemingly
random facts and revealing the world of shady
characters that inhabit them.
Lombardi is an odd sort of conceptual realist. H is
drawings are quiet, especially when compared with
the contemporary art world which seems to be driven
primarily by sensational, loud, flashy and even cat-
egorically voyeuristic imagery. His compositions are
fluid, buoyant; the spareness of Lombardi's line gives
the entire show an austere quality. But get in close to
read the text, and it's like an outline for a suspenseful
mystery novel riddled with fraud and conspiracy.
"31978: Died after mysterious fall down staircase;
2 31979: Target of US Customs probe; 2 31980: Pleaded
guilty to arms smuggling; six months in prison. "These
are just a few of the dizzying number of facts in Gerry
Bull, Space Research Corporation, and Armscor of
Pretoria, South Africa, ca. 1972-80 (fifth version) (1999).
The severity of the texts opposes the beauty of the
patterns Lombardi employs to form such connections.
Though this contrast is present in all the works, it is
particularly striking in Bill Clinton, the Lippo Group
and China Ocean Shipping Co. a.k.a. COSCO, Little
Rock-lakarta-Hong Kong, ca. 1990s (fifth version). The
design looks something like a cute little ladybug with
a pumpkin-shaped body and a slightly spiraling head.
Dotting this innocuous pattern are citations of corrup-
tion, convictions, crooked campaign financing, suicide,
arms smuggling-a shameless sampling of abuses of
power that can make you crazy-dizzy.
Lombardi often includes distinct timelines to
anchor his designs. This device usually results in a
rhythmic flow or pattern. Inner Sanctum: The Pope
and His Bankers Michele Sindona and Roberto Calvi,
ca 1959-82 (fifth version) incorporates three timelines.
From these horizontal lines of dates emerge billowing
paths-orchestral movements of money and power
beautifully illustrated after the fact by Lombardi's
tireless research.
Lombardi's stated goal was "to map the inter-
action of political, social and economic forces in
contemporary affairs." The artist once worked as
a reference librarian in Houston. This is where, one
would assume, he honed his research skills. What is
not clear, however, is why he became so obsessed with
global affairs. Gazing at his work, one is immediately
struck by the moral aspect of the issues he presents.
I found myself asking the same questions over and
over: How could these people behave this way? Have

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they no concern for humanity? Could that lame old
axiom be true? Is the way of the world really as simple
as "absolute power corrupts absolutely?"
It is power and its spheres of influence that draws
us into Lombardi's drawings. Philosopher Eric Hoffer
wrote in 1955,"Those in possession of absolute power
can not only prophesy [sic] and make their prophecies
.   ...
Mark Lombardi, Bill Clinton, the Lippo Group, and China
Ocean Shipping Co. a.k.a. COSCO, LittleRock-]akarta-
Hong Kong, ca. 1990s (5th Version), 1999
605/8x75 inches
Colored pencil and graphite on paper
Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Michael Scott
Photo: John Berens
come true, but they can also lie and make their lies
come true." That attitude, that amoral worldview, is
repeatedly exposed in Lombardi's work.The audience
is positioned as complicit in these crimes-indiffer-
ent or unaware, but nonetheless guilty of collusion
by default. I was born in 1954. Most of what I am
looking at in Lombardi's drawings happened during
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looking at in Lombardi's drawings happened during

/

Mark Lombardi, Inner Sanctum: The Pope and His Bankers
Michele Sindona and Roberto Calvi, ca. 1959-82
(5th Version), 1998
561/2 x1261/4 inches
Colored pencil and graphite on paper
Collection of Janice and Mickey Cartin
Photo: John Berens
my adult life. I saw and heard some
of it, complained a bit, but never did
anything about it. We are all to blame,
I guess. This sad realization is, perhaps,
Lombardi's ultimate goal.
But going back to the physicality of
the work and its aesthetic, these pieces
are quite beautiful in their simplicity.
Napoleon Bonaparte is quoted as saying:
"I love power. But it is as an artist that
I love it. I love it as a musician loves his
violin, to draw out its sounds and chords
and harmonies." Lombardi, too, is har-
monizing. He's bringing the intangible
into a perspective that is informative
and-for lack of a better word-grace-
ful. His drawings make corruption look
tasteful arresting, and somehow endearing. It's an
odd feeling one may have when looking at Lombardi's
drawings, much like life itself-conflicted, troubled,
but with some hope for the future. Otherwise, why
bother?
Mark Lombardi: Global Networks is a traveling exhibi-
tion organized and circulated by Independent Curators
International (New York), curated by Robert Hobbs.
D. Dominick Lombardi writes regularly for The New
York Times and Sculpture Magazine. His current series
of paintings, drawings and sculptures is collectively
titled The Post Apocalyptic Tattoo.

92 ARTL!ES Winter 2004

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