The Last Supper
Final Meals of U.S. Death Row Inmates
April 2013
Julie Green. B. 9/22/61 D.10/12/2021
Julie Green documented last meals of death row inmates on porcelain plates for the over 20 years. Her interest in this work came from being a food person who always saw food as celebratory enjoyment. After reading news articles detailing these last meals, she was compelled to document them because they represented something very different than celebration.
In 2013, The Arts Center showed 500 of her works in the largest showing of them to date. The show received attention from the New York Times.
Since there are still death row executions, her collection continued to grow. In 2015, she had the opportunity to show them and win one of the prestigious Grand Rapids Art Prizes in the process.
A catalogue documenting 500 of her plates was published in conjunction with the show, thanks to the support of The Ford Family Foundation. Recently her collection numbering 1000 plates, created over 21 years, was acquired by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.
