“High Rollers” by Susanne Schuenke, Jacksonville Branch (Florida)

Oil on linen, 36×72

From the artist:

Speculation and betting, charades, intrigues, and manipulations characterize the global financial world.

An exclusive circle of participants gathers around the table. They may be individual investors, brokers, bankers, representatives of organizations, institutions, and even nations. The players adventurously steer into stormy Futures and debt obligations without responsibility to secure a potential retreat. Some manipulate, others arrange around the table of “having” and “controlling” — as it has happened again and again in ancient and modern times, Occident and Orient, Old and New World. History repeats itself with the characters in power play — and the victims’ dire fate.

Most gamblers forget the basic truth: Only risk what you can afford to lose. They venture far out where quicksand lurks. The players represent varieties of the archetype of risk-taking behavior. From the left: The bondholder clings nervously to her pension bag. The Ivy League insists on its academic superiority; exotic Abundance places her trump card; the Super-Computer analyst operates from the background, whereas the white-haired Eminence Gris has lost his shrewd input. The highly experienced con artist gets competition from an immature youngster.

Instability is increasing dangerously, government budgets spiraling into sky-high deficits, and no one seems to be learning the lessons of history. And the game goes on …