Through Kurt I saw the beauty of minimalism and the importance of music that's stripped down.

There was a big drive when I was at art school to make you aware of the economy of meaning - after all this was still during the tail end of minimalism. Being responsible for everything you put in your picture and being able to defend it. Keeping everything clear around you so you know what is operating. To open the wound and keep it clean.

Does art have a future? Performance genres like opera theater music and dance are thriving all over the world but the visual arts have been in slow decline for nearly 40 years. No major figure of profound influence has emerged in painting or sculpture since the waning of Pop Art and the birth of Minimalism in the early 1970s.

After about the first Millennium Italy was the cradle of Romanesque architecture which spread throughout Europe much of it extending the structural daring with minimal visual elaboration.

Warmth isn't what minimalists are thought to have.