Ian Hamilton Finlay review – under the classical veneer, this artist was an idiot

Victoria Miro Gallery, London
Finlay was a defiantly archaic figure with a fondness for plinths and marble. But this show’s glorification of the guillotine proves he had a shallow, adolescent mindWe all respect a classicist. So it’s hard not to be impressed by Ian Hamilton Finlay’s learned citing of the Aeneid, Book X, on a stone column in this exhibition marking the centenary of his birth. The poet, artist and creator of Little Sparta – his renowned art garden – re