Culture of Complaint and the New Deal Murals

In late 2020 , the Tate Britain gallery announced the permanent closure of its restaurant, which is decorated with a mural painted in the late 1920s by Rex Whistler , titled Pursuit of Rare Meats .

Some members of the public had complained about the mural’s “stereotypical” representation of people of colour.

The trustees succumbed to activist pressure and closed the restaurant for good.

The original Public Works of Art program was inspired by an earlier initiative organised by the Mexican government in 1922 .

The idea was to lift the country's spirit as compensation for its people’s material deprivation.

The New Deal murals were as socialist as could be—art for the people, by the people.

Some parents complained that the mural was exposing students to racist material.

The case went to San Francisco’s superior court, where the judge ruled the mural could not be removed because the school board had not conducted an environmental review.

But she also pointed out that since the painter was a communist, his depiction of the president as a slave owner was obviously not an endorsement of slavery but a critique.