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Article: Garden of foreboding: Ian Hamilton Finlay's eightieth birthday has been celebrated by three exhibitions in Edinburgh and tours of his garden, Little Sparta. Tim Richardson explores Finlay's mixture of lyricism, wit and implicit violence.(Exhibitions)
- Article from:
- Apollo
- Article date:
- October 1, 2005
- Author:
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To celebrate Ian Hamilton Finlay's eightieth birthday, Edinburgh saw no fewer than three retrospective exhibitions, which together illustrated something of his range as a poet, printmaker and sculptor. However, the place where Finlay's work is seen to best advantage is his garden at Little Sparta in the Pentland Hills, and it was opened for four afternoons a week in August and September.
'Sentences', over two floors of Inverlieth House at the Royal Botanic Garden, reprises Finlay's output of typographically nuanced epigrams. It consists of large, wall-painted versions of his witty or piquant statements, realised in a variety of typefaces and colours. The ...