Column to Drum (1990)

Ian Hamilton Finlay (1925, Bahamas - 2006)

Stone carving by Jamie Sergeant

     The four pillars that subtly change into drums depict the gradual change of a classical pillar of antiquity into the marching drum of the Revolution. As Finlay said,

“I don’t feel a distance between me and the classical. To me it represents quite a natural language. Other languages could be natural too, but I don’t feel outside the classical. It is clear that most people when they think about these things, their biggest experience is of a distance. I don’t have that experience. I have often said that just as the French revolution, for instance, understood itself through antiquity, I think our time can be understood through the French revolution.”

Finlay briefly attended Glasgow School of Art and first made his reputation as a writer, publishing short stories and plays in the 1950s. He later become known as a sculptor, graphic artist and poet, latterly creating the sculpture garden at Little Sparta in Lanarkshire.

Purchased with the assistance of Art Fund.