And yes – I have a copy of that book on my desk right now, although I did have to buy it myself! He seems less worried about the collection than Manchester, and a bit more able to take it as a product of the times.

Yes, I’d forgotten Eric Gill in this rather less than illustrious pantheon – and the BBC story is a really interesting review of the area, albeit one that, like me, ends up throwing up its arms and not knowing the answer.

I’d like to say that there’s a distinction between art and design, in that design can often have a purpose or intention to persuade. But even that argument falls apart because some art may have a dubious moral motive as well. The BBC article draws the distinction between Gill’s Stations of the Cross and his nude drawings of his daughter. Equally, some design has no intention behind it either – it would seem absurd if the BBC stopped using Gill Sans because of what Eric got up to.

And I do agree that Manchester Art Gallery in particular has to see the collection as a whole, not least because they have a very difficult relation to it. Arguing the case of the EMB collection in a publicly funded gallery in a multicultural city would require more political nous than I could ever muster up.

But context is an odd and flexible thing, isn’t it. We’ve managed to detatch the VW Beetle entirely from its original context; I think if Fred Taylor’s Market Day came up at auction, it would probably manage the same trick too. But the African Transport pair just cannot exist outside of the circumstances in which they were created.

I’m not sure that’s cleared anything up though…

Artists interpret the world and life through their art. Sometimes that art can echo other interpretations, whether or not this was the artist’s intention. For me, the best response to these posters is not to ignore their historic context, but to both recognise that and then see beyond it to their intrinsic artistic value.