The aim of this article is to show how vital Ray Tallis’ ideas about art are for the development of a deeper, broader, and more rewarding contemporary culture. In 2014, I made a compendium of Tallis’ writings about art, showing how he had discovered a purpose for the arts which had not been articulated before and which makes the arts relevant again to people living in a largely non-spiritual, non-philosophical and essentially materialistic, global community. A decade later, his understanding is even more needed because the creation and appreciation of the arts has deteriorated even further, as is exemplified by the untenable, recently developed view that art can, in itself ‘advance,’ and the latest, mindless ‘anything-can-be-art’ follies built on a theft by Duchamp and the financial activities of the art market that have helped to hype these meaningless, found objects. Tallis’ analysis goes to the root of and roots out this short-sightedness, recognising that such ‘art’ is incapable of addressing what he calls ‘the wound in the heart of the present tense.’ His ideas, above all, liberate artists to create exactly what they want and thereby helping others to live fuller and more rewarding lives themselves.