The Observer reviews Ian Hamilton Finlay at the National Galleries of Scotland

'Finlay achieves all these sublime effects purely through the subtle arrangement of two words against two colours. His is an art of distillation, juxtaposition, thrift and contemplation. A poet before he became a concrete poet, a sculptor who became an “avant gardener”, as he put it, of that fabled landscape known as Little Sparta in the Pentland Hills beyond Edinburgh, Finlay understood as few other artists the emotional power of letters cutting into form, shape and colour.'

Read more

Image: Ian Hamilton Finlay, Star/Steer, 1968
© The estate of Ian Hamilton Finlay

March 23 2025