He has faced off a fighter jet, ridden a motorised bed and even been a Beano character. As he steps down, the mighty Guardian critic delivers his insights, confesses his crimes and relives his highs<\/p>\n
After writing about art at the Guardian for 30 years, I have been asked by my editor to reflect on what I have learned. I am not sure I\u2019m capable of doing that. What I can do is write about what I have seen. Even when you are an eyewitness, things get murky very quickly, and critics are among the most unreliable of narrators.<\/p>\n
An unknown woman at a table writes a letter we can\u2019t see, while her maid reacts to something beyond the painted window. We can\u2019t see what she\u2019s smiling at either. How is it that Vermeer\u2019s 1670-71 Woman Writing a Letter, With Her Maid, makes me feel somehow privy to its intimacies when almost everything that matters is withheld? You have to make it up. The stories come barging in, something you can\u2019t quite imagine happening in such an ordered world.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/a6b2a84f2fc0201862c5613e248700b153ce867f\/641_0_6038_4832\/master\/6038.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=9bd85be956d835ab49d5daa4f3afabfa\" "\\"\u2018Money!")
<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"