Is there something wonderfully fitting about a lad from Bristol, on his last day in Spain, visiting the Banksy Museum in Madrid?

Several of his pieces were simply part of my everyday landscape. “Well Hung Lover” was on my route to work.

I have an interest in Street Art probably because I noticed that some of it was actually extremely beautiful, but also because some of it expressed an idea. The art is always ephemeral and always in the public domain.

I used to wander Bristol, sometimes walking the dog, or cycling, or out on a run. I would stop and take a picture if I liked what I saw. I even had a Facebook page for it. I tried to set up the same page in Southampton, but with much less success. Street Art is there (including a Banksy at the General Hospital), but it is less common.

The Banksy Museum delivers excellent replicas of the wall art. Always without later additions by other artists – or vandals! (Where did one end and the other begin?)

I knew many of his pieces, as I say some were part of my landscape, others have become popular statements, repeated on commercially replicated material ad nauseam.

I had some awareness of his work on Palestine, but none of his work in Paris or the US, except as much as some pieces had become famous.

I was unaware that he had funded a refugee rescue ship for use in the Med.

I had zero awareness of his known portable work – modified old paintings with messages changed by imposing a modern element such as a digger or a gun.

Being from the UK and having some interest in politics, I think the museum missed an important piece of information on the Pigeons/Parrot piece from Clacton: Clacton is Nigel Farage’s parliamentary constituency (which he seemingly never visits), he is the leader of the far right anti-immigratiion party.

I’m reminded of a sign hanging in the tavern where the poetry recital took place: “Art isn’t political.” I disagree. Much — perhaps most — art intended for an audience is political in the broadest sense. It asks us to think about the world. It challenges, questions or reinforces beliefs. A statue of a Roman emperor, a Turner landscape and a Banksy mural all say something about the society that produced them. None is truly neutral. My mum’s painting of fish wasn’t trying to persuade anyone of anything. It simply existed because painting made her happy.

I dearly wanted to tell somebody “I am from Bristol”, maybe as a way of claiming a tiny bit of this art for myself. A kind of reflected glory!

The museum doesn’t claim to be endorsed by Banksy; I strongly suspect it’s simply a commercial enterprise, which is deliciously ironic given how much Banksy’s work critiques commercialism.

The museum has a gift shop and undertake the irony of it with a graffiti sign reading “exit through the gift shop”.

The gift shop, however, is expensive.