Written by Mark Sturman
The painting above, entitled Last Supper of a Blessed Nation was completed in 2022 by Jon McNaughton, the self-professed ‘foremost conservative artist’ of the USA. His work has risen to prominence in recent years, garnering a healthy degree of both ridicule and acclaim in the process. Admittedly, his heavy-handed symbolism frequently produces comic effect. A personal favourite is The Magnificent Seven (see below), where McNaughton depicts the likes of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and a thoroughly bewildered looking Theodore Roosevelt, all holding assault rifles aloft in defence of the flag. Nonetheless, it would be unwise to dismiss McNaughton’s work altogether as simply the butt of a joke. He has amassed millions of views across a number of social media platforms, with the comment section often being a hotly contested ground between his detractors and admirers. This attention has enabled him to sell 10,000 to 20,000 prints each year, whilst his original pieces fetch prices ranging from $12,000 to $300,000. With such an extensive audience and dedicated fanbase, McNaughton’s success clearly draws on something much deeper than slapstick comedy. On his website he is described as an artist seeking to ‘tap into the heart of American patriotism’, and pass the ‘nuance and shades of grey’ that characterise American politics through ‘a prism of light and truth’. In this vein, his Last Supper offers a concise summary of a model of US national identity, and portrays domestic politics in terms of a conflict between those who uphold that identity, and those who seek to betray it.
McNaughton’s sense of American identity is grounded in a heavily mythologised reading of the American Revolution. In a video commentary uploaded to Youtube to accompany his Last Supper he explains that the declaration of independence forms the basis for a new covenant made between God and the people of the United States, drawing our attention to the explicit references to God contained within the document. By positioning the declaration of independence alongside a bible, and three of the founding fathers in closest proximity to Jesus, the painting reiterates this claim. In the artist’s view, this privileged relationship with God facilitated the development of a uniquely virtuous people, with this virtue in turn leading divine providence to preserve them and augment their fortunes. This conceptual basis for American exceptionalism colours McNaughton’s worldview in a number of ways that are expressed in this painting and elsewhere. For one thing, the constitution and the declaration of independence are raised to the status of religious scripture. Of course, the entire purpose of a constitution is to be binding, and there are plenty of principles contained therein that are absolutely vital to the healthy functioning of a democratic society. That said, turning the entire document into an article of faith ossifies rather than supports the current political order, precluding even a healthy scepticism over its contents. Elsewhere on his website McNaughton depicts Barack Obama trampling on, or burning the constitution in reference to the former president’s stances on issues such as healthcare and gun control. These kinds of policies, although desirable to some in the USA, are simply unconscionable for people of McNaughton’s persuasion as they represent an assault on the very foundation of God’s new covenant and by extension a betrayal of the American people.
This theme of betrayal is crucial to the way in which he represents rival political movements. On the table in front of Obama there rests a heart on a set of scales alongside the feather of Ma’at. The scales tilt in the direction of the former, marking him out as an unworthy soul in the final judgement. A knife-wielding Joe Biden goes even further, pushing James Madison to one side as he lunges towards the son of God with malicious intent. This absolute betrayal of the American covenant marks the current president out as an un-American, borderline demonic figure with a corrosive influence on the moral character of the nation. Although the symbolism seems extreme, it ties in neatly with the idea of the American people as one chosen by God, as well as the association of their fortunes with divine good will. Just as moral rectitude saw the advance of US power to global hegemony, moral decline must be the motive force behind recent losses in terms of prosperity and relative power on the global stage. At the beginning of his Youtube commentary on Last Supper of a Blessed Nation, McNaughton laments first and foremost the degradation of his country’s honour and virtue, the root cause from which all other ills must stem. Obama and Biden, generally perceived as members of an alien, cosmopolitan elite class far removed from America’s native values provide a good scapegoat in such uncertain times. Donald Trump (here shown restraining and admonishing his deicidal foe) derives much of his appeal from presenting himself as the opponent of un-American establishment forces. In the artist’s own words: ‘one of the reasons why […] Trump was so refreshing when he came in, the way he handled the press, it was like you know fight or die, stand up for what you believe in’. Those aspects of his public oratory that tend to strike the more liberal-minded spectator as insolent buffoonery, are thus cast as a champion of the American people sticking it to the proverbial man. This combines with the religious significance of Americanness outlined earlier to enable McNaughton to portray Trump (far from a paragon of Christian virtue in the traditional sense) as Christ’s own guardian angel in his Last Supper.
These kinds of attitudes conspire to give American politics extraordinarily high stakes. The motif of the last supper in itself reveals that McNaughton believes his blessed nation to be on a precipice. The hourglass under Jesus’ right hand and the gavel on the table in front of him suggest impending judgement, inextricably linked with the moral-political state of the USA. In light of this, he offers a paradigm of national rejuvenation revealed by the biblical verses on the archways in the background.
Psalm 33:12
Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he chose for his inheritance.
2 Chronicles 7:14
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
He urges the audience to call to mind the American covenant made centuries ago whilst speaking directly to the polarisation and perceived decline of the USA. To make America great again is to make America good again, by returning to an idyllic past wherein the innate virtues and Christian piety of her people can fully bloom. This alone can bring about a renewal of God’s covenant that will guide the USA through the perils and hardships of the 21st century.
From the outside looking in it is not hard to poke holes in this kind of thinking. It rests on a very sanitised view of the past, thereby closing itself off from meaningful discussion concerning many of America’s current ills. Most importantly of all, it falls apart if the audience does not accept Christian theology, making this vision of a future America utterly inaccessible to almost a third of Americans. That said, it clearly holds considerable appeal in certain sections of US society, drawing on cherished notions of national and religious identity. It offers clearly defined culprits and a roadmap for navigating the complexities of an increasingly turbulent time that is reassuring in its simplistic optimism. That it fails to grapple seriously with the worst of the problems facing the present-day USA, or that it excludes so many of its inhabitants from its vision of national renewal in no way detracts from the strength of this narrative. There is no reason to expect the sales figures of Jon McNaughton to diminish any time soon.
The Magnificent Seven
McNaughton Fine Art Company (https://jonmcnaughton.com/)
Jon McNaughton Youtube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@McNaughtonArt
(videos quoted: ‘Last Supper of a Blessed Nation || Jon McNaughton || American Artist’ // ‘Sketch of President George W Bush ★ Art by Jon McNaughton’)
Identity Hunters 