A Massive Sculpture of an African American Last Supper, Hidden for Years, Has Been Discovered in Columbia Heights
Joy Zinoman got an unexpected phone call last week. Demolition had just begun inside a former church in Columbia Heights that she’s turning into the new home of the Studio Acting Conservatory. Now the boss of the the crew working was on the line to tell the Studio Theatre founder about a remarkable discovery his guys made: An enormous frieze of the Last Supper that was hidden behind drywall for more than a decade.
The building on Holmead Place, Northwest, had been slated to become condos before the conservatory bought it earlier this year. It was built in 1980, city records say, to house New Home Baptist Church, which moved to Landover, Maryland, in the 1990s. After that it became a building for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. A signature on the lower right of the sculpture leaves no doubt at which point it joined the building’s history: “All rights reserved 1982 Akili Ron Anderson.”
Anderson, an artist who’s lived his whole life in Washington, began installing art projects at DC-area churches in 1985–mostly stained glass windows, as well as a painting and one sculpture, the Washington Post reported in 1993. That would be this altarpiece. “Everyone who visited the church was taken aback by it,” New Home trustee board chairman Willie L. Morris told Post reporter Esther Iverem. “It was very important to us that we have a black artist. All the other Last Supper pictures we’d seen were always in a white framework.” The church wanted to take the relief with it when it moved, “but we couldn’t,” Morris said.
Full article: A Massive Sculpture of an African American Last Supper, Hidden for Years, Has Been Discovered in Columbia Heights | Washingtonian (DC)
Joy Zinoman got an unexpected phone call last week. Demolition had just begun inside a former church in Columbia Heights that she’s turning into the new home of the Studio Acting Conservatory. Now the boss of the the crew working was on the line to tell the Studio Theatre founder about a remarkable discovery his guys made: An enormous frieze of the Last Supper that was hidden behind drywall for more than a decade.
The building on Holmead Place, Northwest, had been slated to become condos before the conservatory bought it earlier this year. It was built in 1980, city records say, to house New Home Baptist Church, which moved to Landover, Maryland, in the 1990s. After that it became a building for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. A signature on the lower right of the sculpture leaves no doubt at which point it joined the building’s history: “All rights reserved 1982 Akili Ron Anderson.”
Anderson, an artist who’s lived his whole life in Washington, began installing art projects at DC-area churches in 1985–mostly stained glass windows, as well as a painting and one sculpture, the Washington Post reported in 1993. That would be this altarpiece. “Everyone who visited the church was taken aback by it,” New Home trustee board chairman Willie L. Morris told Post reporter Esther Iverem. “It was very important to us that we have a black artist. All the other Last Supper pictures we’d seen were always in a white framework.” The church wanted to take the relief with it when it moved, “but we couldn’t,” Morris said.
Full article: A Massive Sculpture of an African American Last Supper, Hidden for Years, Has Been Discovered in Columbia Heights | Washingtonian (DC)
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