Andy Warhol. The Last Supper (pink)

This autumn, De Nieuwe Kerk’s Masterpiece series will feature a work by Andy Warhol. From 6 October to 11 November 2012, De Nieuwe Kerk Amsterdam will be exhibiting his religious and spiritual masterpiece The Last Supper (pink), from 1986. At the end of his life, Warhol (1928–1987) made a series of works on this theme, which many experts regard as his most important achievement. It is the first time since 1987 that the over seven metre wide pink canvas, from the collection of the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, will be coming to Europe. It will provide a dazzling spectacle in the sanctuary of De Nieuwe Kerk for five weeks.

The Last Supper is one of the best loved subjects in art. The earliest images of it date from the end of the fifth century. Warhol’s source of inspiration was the monumental fresco by Leonardo da Vinci (1498) in the Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, possibly the most famous of all representations of this subject. In 1986 Warhol made a series based on this fresco, as a commission for an art dealer, and the series was displayed opposite the Santa Maria delle Grazie the following year. Soon after this exhibition, on 22 February 1987, Warhol died in New York.

Few people were aware of Warhol’s devout religious faith during his lifetime. He attended church regularly and was extremely active in charity work. These activities contrasted starkly with his carefully cultivated image of superficiality and attachment to ephemera.

In this work, Warhol juxtaposed two versions of the famous fresco in order to give the figures a different emotional charge. His choice of the colour pink may have been inspired by its associations with babies, vitality, and life. The figures are black, invoking connotations of death, especially that of Jesus, whose death in turn represents eternal life. Life and death are closely intertwined. With this work, Warhol professed his veneration for Da Vinci’s masterpiece, and provided a new way of looking at it.

In 2011, De Nieuwe Kerk initiated a new tradition of displaying a religious masterpiece from a museum or private collection every autumn, starting with The Holy Family by Rembrandt (1645). The featured choice may be related to any world religion. In each case, it will be an important work that calls for contemplation and introspection, that dazzles from the sanctuary, and that invites people to make a ‘pilgrimage’, as it were, to come and see it.

Andy Warhol. The Last Supper (pink)
A masterpiece in De Nieuwe Kerk

artists:
Andy Warhol