Julie Green: The Last Supper

The Last Supper features nearly 1,000 hand-painted ceramic plates, illustrating the final-meal choices of people on death row in the U.S.  Artist Julie Green (1961-2021) spent twenty-two years creating this large-scale art installation by painting images of the final meals on found ceramic plates with cobalt blue mineral paint and then re-firing them in a kiln.  Boise Art Museum is the first to showcase all available plates created by the artist.  The Last Supper encourages viewers to consider the U.S. prison system and the way we think about those who are within it.  By linking us together through our basic need for food and our rituals associated with it, Green sparks a human connection and opens our hearts and minds to individuals in our society who are often disregarded and forgotten.

“A final meal request humanizes death row for me.  Selections provide clues on region, race, and economic background. A family history becomes apparent when Indiana Department of Corrections ads, ‘he told us he never had a birthday cake, so we ordered a birthday cake for him.’”

-Julie Green  (b. 1961, Yokosuka, Japan – d. 2021, Willamette Valley, Oregon)         

Organized by the Boise Art Museum

Generously loaned by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art as part of Art Bridges’ Partner Loan Network