After a lifetime in health care with varying degrees of responsibility, it was a joy to retire and do something less critical. Art would be about footling around with paint and getting charcoal on your nose, and nobody would die if I forgot who Matisse was. I was wrong on all counts except, obviously, the one about people dying of my sudden-onset Matisse Amnesia. Art has a complex history of decoration, illumination, and exploitation, but latterly has also had a political edge – take Banksy’s various visual commentaries, especially his dystopian fairground, Dismaland. I had been largely unaware of much … Continue reading The meaning of art