What does the UK government hang on its walls for inspiration? Works by David Shrigley—including Untitled (Get Off the Wing You Idiot) (2014)—are currently on show in the Home Office, while the Foreign Office has gone for Le Rodeur: The Pulley (2017) by the Turner Prize winner Lubaina Himid. The Times recently revealed the works selected by Labour ministers as well as what they replaced. At the Treasury, under the chancellor Rachel Reeves, five pieces by Barbara Hepworth, including Orchid (1970), and the painting Good Morning (2019) by Martine Poppe substituted portraits by the 18th-century printmaker James Gillray. When Angela Rayner was the deputy prime minister (before she stood down for a breach of the ministerial code) she chose the neon piece An Answer Is Expected (2013) by the Northern Irish artist Susan MacWilliam, which seems prophetic…
