Appeal to save 'Scotland's greatest artwork'

Published on Friday 19 June 2009 21:51

AN APPEAL has been launched to raise £1.2 million to secure the future of a wind-swept Pentlands garden, which is reputed to be Scotland's greatest artwork.

Little Sparta, in which 270 contemporary sculptures and poetic inscriptions are interwoven in the landscape among lawns, plants and trees, was created over decades by the artist Ian Hamilton Finlay.

Yesterday, the last addition conceived by Hamilton Finlay before his death in 2006 – his Hortus Conclusus, or medieval walled garden – was unveiled. It includes a pond with his slate inscriptions placed around it, featuring the Latin names of cloud types that can be seen reflected on the water's surface.

Magnus Linklater, the chairman of Little Sparta Trust who is also a former editor of The Scotsman, said there would be a five-year drive to raise the cash from individuals and foundations for Scotland's "greatest work of art".

Barely 3,000 visitors a year make their way to Little Sparta, near the village of Dunsyre, as it is believed that the intricate gardens could be damaged by larger numbers.

The gardens alone cost about 60,000 to maintain a year, Mr Linklater said. "The trouble with gardens is that they very inconveniently grow," he added. "They don't stand still. Trees grow to twice the height; shrubs grow out of control."

A panel of experts, headed by the US-based garden designer Ann Uppington, will draw up a masterplan for future conservation and management.

The themes of the garden's 11 separate enclaves run from classical temples and the French Revolution to the Second World War, the sea and fishing fleets.

The garden charges visitors 10 a head and can only cope with about 3,000 to 4,000 visitors per year, Mr Linklater said.

The goal now was to ensure the garden's future for 20 years ahead, he added.

"We could go out and do a huge advertising campaign, we could easily get 10,000 people a year, but that would mean the destruction of the garden."

Instead, about 30,000 will go to developing a website for "virtual visitors".

Hamilton Finlay's work may be better known internationally than in Scotland, though Little Sparta topped a poll of Scottish artists on their favourite work.

James Knox, the managing director of The Art Newspaper, said: "He is without doubt the most influential post-war Scottish artist internationally."

Hamilton Finlay pioneered the use of text, including his own poems, in sculpture, and his works are held by many top museums around the world, from the Getty Museum in Los Angeles to the Pompidou Centre in Paris.

The influence of his use of words as part of an artwork can be seen in the inscriptions on the wall of the Scottish Parliament, which also has his work in its collection.

'HE LEFT US A MASTERPIECE AND A RESPONSIBILITY'

LITTLE Sparta is a national treasure, but loaded with all sorts of risk-taking because Ian Hamilton Finlay made it clear that it should not be open all year round, and that the access would be limited.

Therefore it is unlike any other commercial operation in the arts, and is bound to provide a great challenge to those that care about it.

There is an inevitability about this fund-raising appeal. I felt it was coming as soon as I heard the sad news that Ian had died in 2006. Dare I ask that the Scottish Parliament would take an initiative here and ensure the future of this masterpiece to the nation?

Little Sparta is not a simple garden, it is a Gesamtkunstwerk, a "total art work", rivalling Constantin Brancusi's sculptural homage to First World War heroes at Targu-Jiu in Romania, or Claude Monet's garden at Giverny in France. It also brings the same responsibility. He left us a legacy with a double edge: a masterpiece and a terrifying responsibility. Are we up to it?

The man in the street should be encouraged to go there, and those concerned with art, or the environment. It should draw in the support of Scotland's universities and art colleges. He's created an Arcadia, where nature, art and philosophy can join.

&#149 Richard DeMarco is an artist and art promoter