Brooklyn Artist Accommodates Lehman Graffiti

Geoffrey Raymond is a 54-year-old artist from Brooklyn, New York. He doesn’t have the cache of David Hockney or Red Grooms, but “The Annotated Fuld,” his latest painting about Wall Street, might push him in that direction.

Mr. Raymond can paint a bit. His is a modern style in which the artist uses color and texture to suggest the features of the object. In other words, he doesn’t paint a tree to look like a tree, rather his uses greens and browns to remind the viewer of a real tree. He would never be mistaken for Rembrandt or Canaletto. His painting of Lehman Brothers’ boss, Richard Fuld, looks like a man’s face that may or may not be that belonging to Mr. Fuld.

However, his genius lies not in the painting, but in the presentation. He put it up outside Lehman Brothers’ headquarters Monday and Tuesday and offered passers-by a pen with which to write in the white background their sentiments. These included, “Blood suckers” and “See you at the soup kitchen!!!”

The Associate Press stated, “Raymond said he has been painting portraits of Wall Street figures for years but only recently became enthralled with the idea of giving the public a role in his work.” The wire service added that this is “the latest in a series that began when Raymond turned up outside the offices of Dow Jones & Co. last summer as the company and its flagship newspaper, The Wall Street Journal, were being sold to Rupert Murdoch. Since then, Raymond has produced similar annotated works of Bear Stearns Chairman James Cayne and former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who was forced to resign after a prostitution scandal. He is already at work on a new painting of former American International Group chief Hank Greenberg.”

One wishes Mr. Raymond both artistic and financial success with his work. And one hopes that things on Wall Street slow down enough to let the poor man get some sleep.

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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