Rich Man, Poor Man

  • Click on image to enlarge

    Photo: Stephen Pitkin/Pitkin Studio
1986
Paint, ballpoint pen, pencil, glitter, on paper
14 x 17 inches
Collection of
Toledo Museum of Art
Museum purchase and gift of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation
Description

"It shows a fellow that's been chained down. He wants something to eat and all he can get is a bone. There's also a rich man, one of them big money men, a man that has everything. Instead of a bone in his mouth, he's smoking a cigar. He's burning up his wealth and the poor man has nothing but a bone. The rich man has the power to give or to release, but he's not interested in the poor fellow down on his knees with nothing . . . all he can do is hold a bone in his mouth. He doesn't even have any meat, just a bone. The bone is rotten, it's not fit to be eaten, except by a fly . . . yet that's his way of life. He's like an animal because of lack of opportunity. He desires a better way of life, he desires something, but the rich man isn't much interested in giving anything up. He doesn't even have a smile on his face—all he's interested in is his big cigar." —Luster Willis