Richard Demarco (born in Edinburgh, 1930) is an artist and has been one of Scotland’s most influential advocates for contemporary art. Ian Hamilton Finlay (1925 – 2006) was a poet, writer, visual artist and gardener. Little Sparta is Finlay's greatest work of art. The two lives of Demarco and Finlay have crossed and recrossed in many contexts. The two artists shared a love of Scottish fishing boats and their harbours, and collaborated on prints and books on the subject. Stonypath, the original name of Little Sparta, soon became a 'nodal' point for Demarco’s experimental Edinburgh Arts Summer School. A selection from Demarco’s vast collection of photographs concern meetings with Ian Hamilton Finlay and visits to Little Sparta from 1970s to the present day. A selection of these archival photographs are shown alongside current pictures of the same scene or artwork in the garden depicting how these have altered between Then and Now.
