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London’s Tate Restaurant’s Unappetizing Mural About “Meat”
A Weak Response to A Mural To Enhance Racist Stereotypes
The mural is called “Viva Voce” by Rex Whistler in 1927. It features a white woman in a flowing white dress hauling a terrified black child tied to a rope or leash, a horse and buggy also hauling another black child with chains around their neck, and a frightened black woman in the trees. The British Tate at the Modern is the location of this art piece. Apparently, despite written complaints since the 1970s, the decision to take some action about the mural only occurred recently. I got wind of it through an article in The New York Times, March 18, 2024 edition, entitled, “Artist’s response to racist mural walks a fine line.” Here is a link to the story.
Tate Britain’s Rex Whistler restaurant will close after it was decided a mural featuring two slave boys that the artist painted nearly a century ago is too offensive for modern diners … the institution today confirmed that the restaurant will not re-open, but the mural — called ‘The Expedition in Pursuit of Rare Meats’ — will remain. Daily Mail.
Reading the story is painful. The tone of the article shines a grotesque apathy on the people of England, for how the writer and…
