TURAN-KENNEDY, N: Leonardo da Vinci, the Last Supper, and I

This book looks over the appropriations of the past art in Contemporary American Art through my own paintings and the question of whether or not there is an accepted practice of appropriating the art of the past in Contemporary art is scrutinized. Many artists have challenged art history and have made interpretations of the Last Supper including Andy Warhol, Rene Cox, Ronald Leax, and Mary Beth Edelson. New York Times chief art critic Michael Kimmelman suggested during his conference at the Contemporary Art Museum in St.Louis in 2005 that the reason of the tendency among many contemporary artists to appropriate masters‘ work was the pressure of the past, even though no art that was made in the past was perfect. Because I think the same way, I chose to execute a series of paintings related to one of the famous art works in the world, the Last Supper (1496-1498) by Leonardo da Vinci and wrote about it as well in this book.