Art/Life: “The Last Supper”

Posted by on in , , , , ,

Print Friendly Version of this pagePrint Get a PDF version of this webpagePDF
Julie Green: "The meals were so personal, they humanized death row for me."
Julie Green: “The meals were so personal, they humanized death row for me.”

New York Times/ see Slide Show

That the world knows what a condemned person was served — indeed, that such information is often part of the narrative of the execution itself, posted on Web sites and in news articles from the prison — is what initially caught Professor Green’s attention…

The number of executions has declined in the United States in recent years, from a modern-era high of 98 in 1999 to 43 in 2012. Texas, which has put more people to death than any other state since capital punishment was restored in 1976 by the United States Supreme Court, stopped offering special last meals to the condemned in 2011. But the number of Professor Green’s plates keeps growing: She plans to continue painting as long as there is a death penalty.

“The Last Supper” closes in Corvallis, Ore., on Feb. 16, and will then travel to the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, in Eugene, Ore.

plates1

(13)