London, Tate commissions work in response to its 1927 mural deemed racist

A new work to be put in dialogue with a 1927 mural, however, considered racist in the eyes of today’s society. Yesterday, in fact, Tate Britain in London announced that British artist Keith Piper, born in 1960 in Malta (when the island was still a colony of the United Kingdom) to a family of Afro-Caribbean descent, and founder of BLK Art Group, an association of black British students, will perform a new work to be placed in dialogue with the mural by Rex Whistler (Eltham, 1905 - Caen, 1944) that decorates the museum’s restaurant, closed since 2020 due to pandemic, and yet to reopen.

Piper, famous for his artistic responses to specific historical relationships and geographic sites, as well as for strongly criticizing incidents of institutional racism in the art world, rose to prominence in the 1980s precisely as a founding member of the BLK Art Group and went on to organize solo exhibitions in museums and galleries in the United Kingdom, Europe, and the United States. His output as an artist ranges from painting and photography to video and digital media. Piper also works as a curator, researcher and academic and is an associate professor at Middlesex University in London.

It had been announced this year that a contemporary artist would be invited to create a new installation in situ next to the mural: in fact, the museum preferred the path of reinterpretation to that of removal , which had also been clamored for during the months of Black Lives Matter protests. And this is because of the Whistler mural’s depiction of enslaved black children, shown being dragged by white scouts during a hunting trip. But that’s not all: the way the Chinese are depicted, which is considered caricatured, is also disputed.

Impossible, however, to remove the mural: it is one of Whistler’s most important works, it is on the site for which it was commissioned, and it is protected by British law. Tate Britain, while acknowledging the presence of now-offensive elements, has therefore decided to reopen the venue as an exhibition space that critically engages with the history and content of the mural, including its imagery deemed racist, and that the restaurant will seek to develop new dining offerings in other Tate Britain spaces in due course. This approach was developed through a series of discussions held in 2021, which invited voices inside and outside Tate to explore possible next steps, including artists, art historians, cultural consultants, civic representatives, and young creative professionals. Tate is responsible for the mural, and the gallery’s approach, the museum makes clear, must create an appropriate context for its display, as well as allow that context to evolve over time.

Alex Farquharson, director of Tate Britain, said, “Keith Piper’s work has always reflected his deep interest in important but neglected histories, particularly a longstanding engagement with issues of race and the legacy of empire. Piper’s unique voice will bring a vital new perspective to the room, juxtaposing past and present in an ongoing conversation, as we often try to do in the Tate Britain program today.”

“The interwar years fascinate me,” said Keith Piper. "On the one hand, we have the creative rebellion and hedonistic excess of the Roaring Twenties. On the other, we have paranoia and polarization across the country, as seen in the anti-black riots of 1919 and the reactionary and racist ideologies that gripped sectors of British society. Rex Whistler’s mural stands at the confluence of multiple influences from that period and becomes a fascinating window into a complex era." Piper’s new work is currently in production and will be unveiled in fall 2023.

London, Tate commissions work in response to its 1927 mural deemed racist

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