Art Review: Greenaway's Vision of DaVinci's Last Supper

Art Review: Leonardo’s Last Supper: A Vision by Peter Greenaway
Dec. 3, 2010 – Jan. 6, 2011
Park Avenue Amory, New York City
http://www.armoryonpark.org/index.php/programs_events/detail/last_supper_peter_greenaway/

I’ve wanted to get to New York City since I read about this exhibit at the Park Avenue Armory highlighting Leonardo DaVinci’s Last Supper, in early December. Well with one day left in the show I finally got there. My apologies to any of you who would have liked to see it too, after reading this.

Peter Greenaway has taken multi-media and digital technologies to attempt a dialogue between painting and cinema. His goal was to use the value of painting to “fix and stabilize and limit and frame the image…and to use cinema to make a painting move and change, have a temporal life and have a sound-track.” (From the House Program for this exhibit, www.armoryonpark.org) I think he has definitely achieved his goals. Through the sound-track, video projections, and the architectural and sculptural elements of this exhibit, DaVinci’s Last Supper truly comes to life and moves with light and symbolic gesture as varying images draw your attention from one end of the room to the other. Some reviewers felt DaVinci would be rolling over in his grave. Personally, I think he would have loved it, being a Renaissance man of art and science.

Visualize yourself 1) standing before an entirely white banquet table (table, tablecloth, food, dinnerware – all white), 2) with an orchestral soundtrack bouncing from one corner of the room to another while 3) on your left, DaVinci’s Last Supper morphs through various settings of light and shadow, highlight and contrast, color palette or black and white, line drawing or fleshed out figures, and 4) on your right, another display of the painting in microcosm is expanded across the wall, showing each fleck of paint digitally scanned, so that as the scene pulls away you are able to grasp the larger portion of the painting (reminding me of George Seurat’s pointillist Neo-Impressionism). Then while all this is happening, 5) the stark white table in front of you is backlit (or lit from beneath in this case) in alternating colors of green, orange, red, and others. 6) In order to take it all in you’ve got to look left, right, down at the table, back to the right, again to the left…as if you were seated at the table having a dinner conversation with 12 people. There are times when it seems that the figures in the painting have actually popped up off the background and become sculptures. There are other times when the figures disappear into the background while one symbolic aspect of the painting is brought to the fore. On the one hand, it is a bit overwhelming. On the other, it is a static painting come alive with digital cinematography. Either way, it is a unique way to experience this masterpiece of art.

The segment of the exhibit focusing on the Last Supper is bookended by two similarly styled presentations. The introduction piece depicts Italy as the host of cities built up around piazzas, where the Italian lifestyle of centuries has nurtured the art of centuries. The follow up piece includes dialogue to dissect the artistic, mathematic and architectural composition of Paolo Veronese’s Wedding at Cana. I found these two segments rather confusing as I had not yet read the House Program when I viewed the 45 minute presentation. With this insight now behind me, I understand the intent but feel that the connections are not easily bridged without the notes. At first I thought the dialogue included with Veronese’s Wedding at Cana would have helped to understand Greenaway’s intent with The Last Supper, but now, after reflection, think that might have distracted from Greenaway’s own artistic interpretation of The Last Supper.

All in all, it was a great thing to see and experience. Not bad for $15 in New York City.

The Park Avenue Armory is also a treasure to behold. Grand paintings (at least one by Thomas Nast) line the halls, coffered ceilings and wall paneling are ornately detailed with craftsmanship not easily found today. Stained glass windows honor Medal of Honor recipients from World War I. Next time I’ll plan to arrange for a guided tour of the Armory as well.

My only true gripe? After walking what seemed like an eternity of city blocks from the Port Authority Bus Terminal, this exhibit was a standing 45 minute presentation (there were a few seats but those had been taken by the elderly among the group – and rightfully so). That’s what I get for tackling New York on a tight budget. After this we hoofed it over to the Museum of Natural History. I splurged on a cab back to Port Authority as we headed home. Oh my aching feet! But it was a day well spent with my daughter, before she heads back to college, and feeding my artistic hunger. And, for this wonderful opportunity I say “Thank you, Lord!”