In the early 2000s, singer-songwriter Helen Orr was walking down a familiar street in Notting Hill when a painting in a gallery window stopped her in her tracks. It was a bright field of sunflowers, rendered in saturated yellows, greens, and blues. The work radiated light. On a grey London pavement it returned her, unexpectedly, to the warmth of the African sun under which she had recently lived. More than that, it reminded her of something she felt had vanished from much of contemporary art: beauty.