Tavares Strachan | The First Supper

"It's a meditation on humankind's struggle for progress." Artist Tavares Strachan discusses his monumental bronze sculpture The First Supper (Galaxy Black) which was on display at the Royal Academy Courtyard until 10 May 2024. It features from left to right: a Tasmanian tiger, a portrait of the artist Tavares Strachan, musician Sister Rosetta Tharpe, activist Harriet Tubman, politician Shirley Chisholm, activist Marcus Garvey, resistance fighter Zumbi Dos Palmares, Emperor Haile Selassie, nurse Mary Seacole, explorer Matthew Henson, Marsha P. Johnson, musician King Tubby, poet Sir Derek Alton Walcott and astronaut Robert Henry Lawrence. The artwork was part of 'Entangled Pasts', an exhibition bringing together over 100 major contemporary and historical works as part of a conversation about art and its role in shaping narratives of empire, enslavement, resistance, abolition and colonialism – and how it may help set a course for the future.