THE LAST SUPPER: GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER

August 2018

The Last Supper conjoins my interest in art and ideas.

As a Sunday school teacher in elementary school,  I studied and taught the bible. When I read the bible I was attracted to the values that underpin it,  freedom of religion and freedom of thought generally .

Later,  in high school one of my friends, an immigrant from Eastern Europe,  introduced me to Marxism and a Soviet run bookstore in downtown Toronto where youth were encouraged to gather,  drink coffee and explore ideas.

Around the same time, and in preparation for my first marriage, my fiancee and I were guided by  a United Church Minister who spoke to us about living  undercover and in poverty,  in order to truly apply the tenets of Christianity.  His teachings were as close to liberation theology as one could get in the 1970’s in Don Mills, Ontario. I was smitten with the possibility of doing good works in this way. I saw for the first time the possibility of achieving my goals of becoming an  important person by following in his footsteps… which is as lame as it sounds. Instead, I went to  University where  I studied physical education and  sociology of culture, before graduating from law school.

The diseases of Parkinson’s and Lewy Body Dementia  have given me  a layered perspective on how my brain and body work both together and against each other. I hope my paintings capture this tension.

The figures in these paintings were chosen because they have earned,  on the merits , the right to be invited to “The Last Supper.”

The fact that most of them are women speaks for itself.

Kevin Whitaker

Last Supper Catalogue:

The Last Supper: Guess Who's coming to Dinner Gillygooly