Clearly inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper (1495-1498), LaChapelle’s “Last Supper” reimagines the biblical scene of the final meal that Jesus shared with his disciples in the 21st century. Street fashion, tattoos, fast food. But LaChapelle isn’t actually imagining a “Last Supper” too differently from the Bible, stating in an interview: “The apostles were not the aristocracy, they were not the well-to-do, they weren’t the popular people; they were sort of the dreamers and the misfits.” They were the marginalised. Besides the loose compositional similarity of the scene and Jesus’ red and blue chiton, what’s constant, then, between the Last Suppers of LaChapelle and da Vinci is this presentation of a marginalised group of people –– only in LaChapelle’s image, its demographic is more recognised by us today: low-income communities, people of colour, gangsters, drug dealers, sex workers. Not only, then, is LaChapelle’s “Last Supper” a humorous reinvention of Christian iconography and language, given his relabelling of Christ as “homeboy,” but a faithful one that is optimistic about the unifying teachings of Christ.

Size: 19.69"W 27.56"H (50x70 cm)

Printed on 170g FSC-certified paper