An Inspired Portrait of Hank Paulson
Geoffrey Raymond’s disturbing-but-funny Hank Paulson portrait…
… and one of those creepy Blue Man Group dudes?
Raymond’s annotated paintings contain notations written in pen by various people — in the case of the Paulson and Dick Fuld portraits, he went to the Sotheby’s auction of Lehman-owned art and handed out pens to passersby. Ex-Lehman employees are in green, general public in blue or black. Getting ex-Lehman employees to sign the Paulson portrait (remember Paulson, an ex-Goldman chief, killed Lehmann by selectively refusing it a bailout) was an inspired move. The strategy leads to comments like “How do I explain to my 3 year-old why I am home?” and “Asshole Thief Liar Did I leave anything out?” and the touching “Your mother sucks cocks in hell!” If I had an extra $65,000 I might buy it, but, well… those monthly porn bills add up! A print, however, might be a Christmas necessity. I recommend checking out the site for the Maria-Bartiromo-as-Virgin-Mary portrait alone.