The Last Supper

Dated 1977, the Last Supper — executed on crumpled paper, from a limited edition of 80 — is among Watanabe's most expansive Last Supper compositions, the thirteen figures gathered around the table rendered in the bold forms of his mature katazome style. The crumpled paper ground gives the scene a physical warmth suited to the meal's intimacy and the weight of what is being enacted. By 1977, Watanabe had been refining this subject for over a decade and a half; this version represents the synthesis of his accumulated understanding of the scene's human and theological dimensions.