A photographic book contrasting Ian Hamilton Finlay’s two major gardens, Little Sparta in Scotland, and Fleur de l’Air in France, was published by Wild Hawthorn Press in 2010. The sacred grove of antiquity was an enchanted spot for quiet contemplation, where mortals could commune with the gods. This tradition continues to resonate in these two extraordinary gardens, one set high on the windswept Pentland Hills of southern Scotland, and the other in the midst of ancient olive terraces in Provence, France.
Little Sparta was begun in 1966 and today houses some 275 of Finlay’s artworks and sculptures. Its name alludes to Edinburgh’s epithet: ‘Athens of the North’. In 2004, British artists and art experts chose Little Sparta as the nation’s premier artwork. Little Sparta is open to visitors during the summer months (www.littlesparta.co.uk), while the newer Fleur de l’Air, created in 1994, remains closed to the public. Hungarian photographer Sam Rebben has captured both gardens in beautiful images which invite viewers to immerse themselves in the interplay between nature and culture, and in the exceptional garden poetry of Ian Hamilton Finlay.
Einsamkeit und Entsagung / Solitude and Renunciation
Zwei Gärten : Ian Hamilton Finlay: Two Gardens
Editor: Pia Simig
Photographer: Sam Rebben
Introduction: Prudence Carlson
German Translation: Julia Eames
Hardcover, German and English text
24.5 x 16.0 cm
112 pages, 70 colour illustrations
Kehrer Verlag, Heidelberg-Berlin, Germany
‘Superior gardens are composed of glooms and solitudes and not of plants and trees.‘
Ian Hamilton Finlay
