Hidden for years

October 17, 2019 4:12 PM

“A spiritual experience”: The artist behind a rediscovered Last Supper sculpture talks about its creation.

The artist, Akili Ron Anderson, is known for his stained glass work, including Sankofa which is installed at the Columbia Heights Metro Station.

posted by peeedro (10 comments total)

I really love the elongated arms on the outer figures.
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:17 PM on October 17, 2019 [1 favorite]

It really is a great work! Thank you for sharing this :)
posted by starscream at 5:43 PM on October 17, 2019 [1 favorite]

I wonder if it is Judas with his hand on the table...
posted by jim in austin at 6:24 PM on October 17, 2019

Hell yeah! This is the kind of local DC culture that I love.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 6:24 PM on October 17, 2019

I think this sculpture is astonishing and I love the photos which show it from a side perspective, which is not something a normal person viewing the art would probably do. The figures emerging from the wood, the forced perspective with the elongated limbs being actually closer to the viewer and not elongated... It's a thrilling sculpture and I think yes it's Judas, with his hand on the table in preparation to dip the bread with Jesus.

I pray (secularly but chosen deliberately because layers) this can be preserved and moved and put on appropriate display. Moving it might destroy it. But successful moving would be a major art rescue. Rescue would be awesome!
posted by hippybear at 9:52 PM on October 17, 2019 [3 favorites]

I heard about this in a segment on the local tv news, they mentioned that preservations from the National Museum of African American History and Culture had already visited to assist in a relocation plan. So it will very likely have a second life in a new venue.
posted by peeedro at 10:30 PM on October 17, 2019

Wow! That is a really powerful piece; I imagine it must be staggeringly so in person! It's somehow both ethereal and weighty at the same time, and the perspective is just stunning. I hope it can find a home in a museum or church, or some other place where it can be seen and enjoyed.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 10:36 PM on October 17, 2019 [1 favorite]

Man, how can you move that? I have no doubt there are smarter people who know how to do it, because that is amazing and definitely needs to go somewhere for preservation.
posted by drewbage1847 at 11:18 PM on October 17, 2019

Glad it will be preserved but sad it cannot remain in religious use. Art made expressly for religious display and worship is stripped of so much power and meaning when it is hung in a museum instead (or when the church becomes more museum than active worship space). I'm not really religious myself anymore, but portraying Jesus as black holds a lot more weight when you really BELIEVE in Jesus and are showing up for Jesus rather than for art or history or culture.
posted by rikschell at 5:29 AM on October 18, 2019 [3 favorites]

Seeing beautiful, meaningful art can be a spiritual experience, whether seen in a museum or a church. The experience is in the mind and soul of the beholder, not dependent on religious belief or the space in which the art is displayed. I am glad this powerful sculpture will be saved and displayed in a museum where many more people can see it than in a church where only parishioners will see it.
posted by mermayd at 8:06 AM on October 18, 2019 [2 favorites]