Bahamian-born contemporary conceptual artist Tavares Strachan has recently reimagined Leonardo da Vinci's world-famous "The Last Supper" painting into a public sculpture unveiled at London's Royal Academy Courtyard, Art Dependence reports.
The piece, which Strachan dubbed "The First Supper" as an homage to the original work, is one of the headliners at the RA's "Entangled Pasts, 1768-now: Art, Colonialism and Change" exhibition that started last Monday, Feb.5, and will continue until April 28.
Strachan's Take on 'Entangled Pasts' and the Black Diaspora
The ongoing show is the RA's attempt to initiate the convergence between historic artworks and contemporary pieces as a means for exploring the narrative issues surrounding the empire's dark history of colonialism and racial conflicts.
Strachan weighs in on this conversation by taking on one of the most famous artworks in the world and turning it into an enormous, multi-piece bronze sculpture that replaced Da Vinci's religious figures with historical and notable individuals of African Diaspora.
The featured men and women, whom Strachan himself picked, comprise twelve Black activists, artists, and scientists. This image that the sculptor crafted is in a strange "marriage" between history and fiction, as the featured people would not have met due to differing times and places.
Most notable among them include the gay rights campaigner Marsha P. Johnson; the famed American abolitionist Harriet Tubman; the first Black congresswoman of the US, Shirley Chisholm; Nobel-winning poet and writer Derek Alton; and legendary gospel singer Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
Strachan also chose to feature individuals who are lesser-known, but as important as the ones mentioned, as part of the sculpture. These people include the Brazilian resistance fighter Zumbi Dos Palmares; British nurse Mary Seacole; the first African-American astronaut, Robert Henry Lawrence; and Matthew Henson, one of the first four people to ever set foot on the North Pole.
Replacing Judas' place is Strachan himself who opted for a self-portrait to replace the 13th figure, opposing Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia who is fittingly depicted in place of Jesus as he is considered by some Rastafarians as the messiah's second coming.
Of the sculpture, Strachan said to Artnet that such an "archival depiction" of important African icons is important, especially as it recenters the spotlight away from Europe and into stories that are "indicative" of "their" identity.
