For nearly 100 years, the 55-foot-long mural has been the backdrop of Tate Britain's fine dining restaurant. Guests were able to catch a glimpse of Rex Whistler's paintings depicting hunting parties riding through spectacular landscapes while sipping fine wine and eating expensive cuisine.
Few visitors to the London Art Gallery have seen two small sections of Whistler's scene, each just a few inches long. One depicted a white woman in a billowing dress and hat dragging a black boy by a rope as she removed her clothes. , while her horrified mother watches from a tree. Another shows the same boy running behind a cart while on a leash.
It wasn't until 2020, following the killing of George Floyd and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, that anti-racism activists highlighted the issue on social media and called for the mural's removal. Soon Tate closed the restaurant, and managers began wondering what to do with the painting, titled 'In Search of Rare Meats'.
Their solutions were on display on Tuesday when Tate Britain reopened the ornate rooms that house the works. Instead of a restaurant, the mural now surrounds a large video piece by black British artist Keith Piper that aims to highlight and explain racist images of Whistler. Exhibition curator Chloe Hodge said Pfeiffer's work will be on display for about a year.
With this new presentation, Tate Britain is trying to balance the demands of conservative politicians and art lovers with activists who want offensive works of art removed from view. Many of them want the museum to avoid any hint of a “woke” stance. But Pfeiffer steers a middle course between the two positions, saying he knows he and the museum could irritate both sides.
“Many people said this was a poisoned chalice.” Piper said.
Pfeiffer's 22-minute, two-screen film, called “Vice Voce” after the Latin name used in British university oral exams, dramatizes an imaginary conversation between Whistler (played by Ian Fink) and a college lecturer (Ellen O'Grady) . In the first half of the film, an academic questions Whistler about the history of a mural the artist completed in 1927. The mood suddenly shifts when Whistler points out Whistler's description of a black mother hiding in a tree.
“who are you?” The instructor demands it. “Oh, a bit of humor.” Whistler answers.
The instructor asked Whistler more questions. Other works he produced included racist depictions of black people and the treatment of ethnic minorities in 1920s Britain.
In the video, Whistler is confused by the line of questioning. “This is all getting increasingly unsavory. I thought you might want to discuss my work,” he says.
In the UK, discussions about problematic works of art tend to focus more on whether the sculpture or painting should be exhibited rather than the artist's motivations or social impact. However, Whistler's murals, painted directly on the museum walls, are protected under English Heritage law. This means Tate Britain cannot be easily removed or altered even if administrators wanted to. And last year, Britain's Conservative government issued guidance requiring museums to “retain and account for” problematic statues or works of art that are part of their buildings.
Nonetheless, some art critics and the Tate's young and diverse staff urged the museum to hide the mural behind a screen.
Hodge, the curator, said he chose Pfeiffer to respond to Whistler's mural. Because she felt Pfeiffer would be “deeply involved” with the original painting and not create “something reactionary.” She added that she expects this work will divide opinion. “You can’t commission a job that does everything for everyone,” Hodge said. “This is ultimately Keith’s own artistic response.”
Piper, the founder of the Blk Art Group, a collective of black artists formed in England in the 1980s, has explored issues of racism and slavery in his art for decades. In his 1996 video piece “Go West Young Man”, a father and son discuss racist stereotypes. “The Coloreds’ Codex,” a fake historical artifact Piper created in 2017, features black, brown and cream paint bottles representing the way planters classified and controlled their slaves.
Zehra Jumabhoy, a lecturer in art history at the University of Bristol, said she was surprised when Tate Britain chose Pfeiffer as a commission “because his early work was so upsetting”. If the museum wanted to avoid escalating tensions around the mural, there were safer options, she added.
But for some artists, Piper was the obvious choice. Hew Locke, a prominent British Guyanese artist, said Pfeiffer's art contained the courage, historical rigor and occasional humor required for high-profile commissions. Pfeiffer was “his own person,” Locke said, not trying to please anyone but himself.
In an interview at the Tate Britain Café, Pfeiffer said he had never eaten in the restaurant space where his work is now displayed. “It was too expensive!” He said: So before the uproar he had never seen the mural.
But he said he was not shocked to learn there were racist images on the walls of Tate Britain. Such stereotypical figures were once common in British art. But what surprised him was how long it took the museum to do the mural. Pfeiffer said that while researching the institution's archives, he came across a visitor letter from the 1970s complaining about the painting.
Pfeiffer said the way Whistler depicted black people was unacceptable, but she disagreed with those who had urged Tate Britain to remove the mural or hide it behind a screen. “My argument is that letting it go makes us important witnesses to history, and by countering it, we learn and hear things we haven’t heard before,” he said. “That is the important role of art and museums.”
After the interview, Pfeiffer went into Tate Britain's newest gallery for a final look at “Vice Voce.” He spoke briefly with Hodge, who said other Tate Britain staff had come to see the work. Although she liked the film, she said some people expected it to “disparage Rex Whistler even more.”
Piper looked surprised. “Isn’t that criticizing?” he asked.
Hodge paused for a moment. “well.” she said “There are always two sides.”