Focus on this artwork and explain the Variations on the theme.
In a follow up painting titled The Empowered Man, McNaughton has the figure from The Forgotten Man standing and looking to the skies while holding the Constitution aloft with one hand and a large stack of paper currency in his other hand. In response, the figures of American Founders along with Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan, and John F. Kennedy smile, and either applaud or pray in thanksgiving. The figures of Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson, and George W. Bush either ignore the man or look ashamed. The figure of Barack Obama has his hands stretching in front of him to ward off what he is seeing as he looks at the Constitution.In 2017 McNaughton produced another piece working off the same theme entitled You Are Not Forgotten taking place in the same setting. In the work, then-president Donald Trump steps on the head of a serpent (invoking the Protevangelium) and accompanied by soldiers, veterans, and police officers looks on approvingly as the same figure from The Forgotten Man painting finishes planting a seedling alongside his wife and daughter.
John F. Kennedy Lincoln Ronald Reagan Franklin D. Roosevelt Protevangelium Barack Obama Woodrow Wilson Reagan George W. Bush Lyndon B. Johnson Abraham Lincoln Donald Trump