The Last Supper

The Last Supper: Art, Faith, Sex, and Controversy in the 1980s, Paul Elie. Farrar, Straus and Giroux (ISBN: 9780374272920) 2025.

Summary: On controversial artists of the 1980’s, discussing the intersection of sexuality and spirituality in crypto-religious works.

The title of this book refers to the final work of Andy Warhol, one of the major figures chronicled in this cultural history of the 1980’s. But it also signifies the kind of book this is. Warhol’s “The Last Supper” is a series (totally about 100 works) of Warhol’s renderings of da Vinci’s work under the same title. Warhol, like many of the artistic figures on the pages of this book, is followed from his Catholic beginnings in Pittsburgh until his death in 1987.

Paul Elie traces the religiosity of Warhol, who after a near-death experience, attended Mass weekly. Furthermore, he explores what he calls the “crypto-religious” element in his art, most apparent in this final body of work. By “crypto-religious” he means hidden or unconventionally used religious symbols or references, sometimes offering an unconventional take on religion. Not only that, Elie portrays him as a “controvert,” one at odds with oneself on matters of belief. He explores Warhol’s closeted homosexuality and his efforts to reconcile his identity with the church’s stance on his sexuality

These themes run through the more or less chronological history of many of the controversial artists of the 1980’s. He opens the book with Bob Dylan’s “Christian” phase marked by the release of Slow Train Coming with it hit song, “Serve Someone.” He then follows the fan response and Dylan’s continued musical evolution and intersection with other artists through the 1980’s.

What follows is an exploration of the lives and work of artists in various media and the controversy their lives and work arouse. Much of this centers around a sense of alienation and yet longing for faith. It often reflects disillusionment with formal religious structures. The crypto-religious elements express both resistance, sometimes to the point of transgression and yet spiritual longing. Sinead O’Connor tears up a photograph of the Pope as she performs on SNL. Madonna dresses seductively and yet sings “Like a Prayer.” Leonard Cohen has many lovers but also writes “Hallelujah.”

Then in film, Martin Scorsese devotes fifteen years to the religiously motivated filming of Nikos Kazantzakis’ The Last Temptation of Christ. The book and movie arouse controversy because of the “alternate life vision” Jesus has on the cross of marriage to Mary Magdalene. Scorsese felt the work explored the deep humanness of Jesus in contrast to so many film portrayals of Jesus. But the critics thought it blasphemy.

Elie also considers writers including poet Czeslaw Milosz, Toni Morrison and James Baldwin, and even Salman Rushdie. The latter’s human portrayal of the prophet in The Satanic Verses resulted in a fatwa, which remains to this day. Rushdie, like other artists, represents those resisting a religion, that in its behavior contrasts with its highest ideals.

For many of the artists in this book who were raised Catholic, they wrestled with the contradictions in the Church’s response, first to homosexuality, and then to the rampant AIDS epidemic that burned through New York and San Francisco in the mid to late 1980’s. We see the contrast between figures like Daniel Berrigan, comforting the dying, and Cardinal O’Connor. Meanwhile, the first revelations of sexual abuse by priests and the coverups are coming out.

One of the more troubling aspects of the “controvert” character of some of the artists is the celebration of “transgressive sexuality.” For instance, we might consider some of the graphic photographic portrayals in Mapplethorpe’s X Portfolio. Is the response to hypocrisy, repressiveness or flawed understandings of the body to throw off all norms and boundaries? Are we to normalize whatever one would do with one’s body (perhaps with the proviso of “consent”)?

What these artists do reveal is the complexity involved in our sexuality and spirituality. Often, we refer to the “mash-up” of different religions as religious syncretism. I wonder if there is a kind of “sexual-spiritual syncretism” of those who identify as spiritual, or even with a given religion, yet pursue sexual practices at variance with the norms of that religion? It seems that at least some of the portrayals in Elie’s book fall into this category.

Paul Elie not only offers a fascinating cultural narrative of the 1980’s, a walk down memory lane for some. He also raises interesting questions about the controversial artists of this period. His exploration of “crypto-religiosity” challenges us to listen more closely to those we might too quickly dismiss. And he shows how artists of the 1980’s, aware of both bodily and spiritual longings, did not bracket these off from each other. It challenges religious thinkers and teachers to join artists and culture critics wrestling with the realities of our embodied lives.