| The Expedition in Pursuit of Rare Meats | |
|---|---|
 Detail of the mural
| |
| Artist | Rex Whistler |
| Year | 1927 |
| Type | Mural |
| Location | Tate Britain, London |
The Expedition in Pursuit of Rare Meats is a mural by the English artist Rex Whistler (1905–1944), commissioned in 1926 and completed in 1927 at the Tate Gallery (now Tate Britain) in London. The mural was commissioned by the gallery's inaugural director, Charles Aitken, for the re-opening of its restaurant, where it forms the entire interior surround of what was the eponymously named eatery, "The Rex Whistler Restaurant".
The work has been at the centre of controversy in recent years over the artist's depiction, in one scene, of a black child chained to and running behind a horse and cart and, in another, of Chinese people deemed by some to read as stereotypical as the figures are "caricatured". The entire painting, and its background story, can also be read as a satire on imperialism ("Rare Meats" being a culinary term for lightly cooked meat, while the painting goes to extremes to find food that is "rare" in the sense of being difficult to find). The room displaying the mural was closed as a restaurant in 2020.
History
The mural was commissioned in 1926 and completed in 1927. Aitken had hoped that the high profile of the mural's commission would induce large restaurateurs like J. Lyons and Co. to fund murals in their establishments. It was funded by Joseph Duveen, who had previously funded the mosaics created by Boris Anrep for the entrance to the Tate in 1921. Duveen had suggested the creation of a refreshment room at the Tate in 1925, and had offered £500 (equivalent to £30,339 in 2021) towards its decoration with a mural. Rex Whistler was recommended for the job by Henry Tonks, who was part of the committee that chose the artist for the mural. Whistler was chosen for the project in 1926 while he was still a student at the Slade School of Art. Another member of the committee, Philip Sassoon, had favoured the artist Glyn Jones, and proposed a competition for the mural's design among alumni of the British School at Rome.
Whistler was paid £5 a day (equivalent to £309 in 2021) over the 18 months it took to complete the work, and given a £100 bonus upon the work's completion (equivalent to £6,350 in 2021). His assistant, Nan West, was paid £3 per day. West's role was to mix colours and prepare Whistler's designs to be transferred to the large canvas. The mural was submerged during the flooding of the River Thames in January 1928 but was undamaged.The Expedition in Pursuit of Rare Meats was included in the Tate's 1939 exhibition Mural Painting in Great Britain, 1919 to 1939, which ran from May to June 1939.
The mural was restored in 2013 as part of a £45 million refurbishment of Tate Britain.
Design
The action depicted in the mural takes place in the fictive land of "Epicurania" ruled over by the "Duke of Epicurania". The content of the mural was created in a collaboration between Whistler and the novelist Edith Olivier. The story articulated in the work depicts an account wherein an "expedition" of a group of seven people departs in search of exotic meats. They travel on all manner of transport—bicycles, carts and horses—from their point of departure the "Duchy of Epicurania", and venture through bizarre and enchanting lands while coming upon creatures such as unicorns, truffle dogs and two giant gluttons guarding the entrance to a cave. The tale finishes with the adventurers arriving back to an ebullient welcome, and the menu of the Epicuranians, which had previously consisted of dry biscuits, is forever changed." Several notable British buildings are depicted in the mural including the bridge at Wilton Park and an arch and pavilion in the grounds of Stowe House.Henry Tonks is portrayed in a bust that looks out from a grotto in the mural.
The mural depicts the "enslavement of a black child and the distress of his mother" and later shows the child "running behind a horse and cart which he is attached to by a chain around his neck".
Reception
When the restaurant re-opened with the mural completed it was described by its publicity as "the most amusing room in Europe". The mural is described as "one of the outstanding mural schemes of the Inter-War years" in Tate Britain's heritage listing on the National Heritage List for England. Writing in Apollo magazine in 2014, Digby Warde-Aldam remarked that "[l]ooking at the mural now is a strange experience; while its subject matter and frivolously gallant style are almost unutterably camp, there's a sombre sobriety to the tones of the paint that renders it an impressive work rather than the sort of kitsch and ephemerally fashionable diorama churned out by some of his contemporaries".
2020 petition and review
In 2020, The White Pube, a duo of art critics, began a campaign against the mural on Instagram. A petition by the duo read: "The fundamental point of a high class restaurant (used primarily by an older white demographic) being installed with art of this horrific nature is not being acknowledged as the harmful and hateful issue it is" and that The Expedition in Pursuit of Rare Meats "sounds more like a concept for a horror film than what you would expect Britain's largest art institution to offer up as an exclusive dining experience...Tate Britain allowing this overtly racist painting to remain for diners' enjoyment is not acceptable". The Tate stated in response: "it is important to acknowledge the presence of offensive and unacceptable content and its relationship to racist and imperialist attitudes in the 1920s and today". The work was reviewed by an ethics committee which reported to the board of the Tate galleries in September 2020. The committee was headed by the Canadian postal executive Moya Greene. The committee reported that they were "unequivocal in their view that the imagery of the work is offensive" and that the offence was "compounded by the use of the room as a restaurant"; however, they stated that the work "should not be altered or removed" and that it is in the care of the Tate's trustees. The mural is part of the fabric of the Grade II* listed building and so cannot be easily resited. The room displaying the mural was closed as a restaurant in 2020.
The Tate removed a description from its website that had described the restaurant as "the most amusing room in Europe" and wrote that "Whistler's treatment of non-white figures reduces them to stereotypes" and that the gallery was "working to become a space that is more relevant, welcoming and inclusive for everyone".
Martin Bailey wrote in The Art Newspaper that "Tate now faces a dilemma. As an art gallery, it can hardly cover the offending figures with a screen and it has a responsibility to allow public access to a work by an important early 20th-century British painter". The future visibility of the room will have to be determined, either by appointment or on a limited or permanent basis to visitors. A permanent security presence will also be required. The notoriety of the mural is also likely to attract many future visitors and thus increase the visibility of the offensive depictions. Bailey wrote that by "drawing attention to the two black children and the Chinese figures the overwhelming number of visitors will go to see the mural simply because of the controversy. They will focus on the offensive passages rather than engage with it as a work of art—and many more people are likely to view the inappropriate figures than a few years ago".
In February 2022 The Tate announced that the former restaurant would reopen to the public as a display space containing, alongside Whistler's work, "interpretive material" and a site-specific art installation to "critically engage" with the piece.
See also
Further reading
- Birchall, Heather (2005). "'The Most Amusing Room in Europe': The Mural by Rex Whistler in the Tate Restaurant". The British Art Journal. 6 (2): 58–65.