‘IMPORTANT TO LOOK’

Artist Backs Return of ‘Undeniably Racist’ Gallery Restaurant Mural

The artwork shows a Black child being enslaved and caricatures of Chinese people.

An artist has defended a British art gallery’s decision to return to public view a mural in its restaurant that he considers “undeniably racist.” The mural, which covers the walls of a dining room of a restaurant in London’s Tate Britain gallery, has been closed to the public since 2020 after an ethics committee deemed it “offensive.” The 1927 piece by Rex Whistler, titled The Expedition in Pursuit of Rare Meats, contains vignettes showing a Black child being kidnapped from his mother—who is naked in a tree—to be enslaved, and also depicts caricatures of Chinese people. In 2022, the gallery commissioned British artist Keith Piper to create his own artwork responding to the mural, with both works set to be displayed from Tuesday. “To keep a clear sense of history we need to see these things,” Piper told The Guardian of Whistler’s mural. “We need to [recognize] the importance throughout [Black] struggles, the importance of difficult images.”