This exhibition is the first U.S. presentation of Sugimoto’s The Last Supper: Acts of God (1999/2012), a five-panel photograph, more than 24 feet in length. The artist first created this work in 1999, from a life-size wax reproduction of Leonardo’s The Last Supper, which he photographed at a museum in Izu, Japan. In 2012, while the work was stored in the artist’s basement, it was damaged by the storm surge and flooding that occurred when Hurricane Sandy hit New York City. Sugimoto chose to retain the dramatic marks, colorations and ripples that have changed the character of the photograph. He commented:
Gallery II also will feature a single work, Sea of Galilee, Golan, 1992, a black-and-white seascape with a quietly undulating surface and a nebulous horizon. This is the sea on which Jesus is said to have walked—one of the miracles of Jesus in the Gospels. Gallery III will present five large-format prints from Sugimoto’s most recent series, In Praise of Shadows. Each photograph is an extreme close-up of a single candle flame, whose flickering white heat seems to sear the paper.
