Hew Lorimer : Scotland's Silent Sculptor

How the life and work of the stone carver Hew Lorimer became a vibrant expression of the culture and history of modern Scotland.

This first full account of the life and work of the sculptor Hew Lorimer RSA (1907-1993) places him squarely within profound social, religious and cultural change in twentieth-century Scotland. In her revelatory study, Katharine Eustace draws on new primary material and combines illuminating biography with vivid art history. Eustace investigates Lorimer’s background and education, while exploring his association with collaborators and with many of Scotland’s leading cultural figures, some from fresh and surprising sources. Specially-commissioned photography, many of the works being recorded for the first time, highlights Lorimer’s exceptional achievement. Lorimer has been under-appreciated and overlooked, but here his great public commissions, Scottish Beasties at Fasnakyle hydro-electric power station, Allegories for the National Library of Scotland, and Our Lady of the Isles on South Uist are examined in depth, giving full voice at last to Scotland’s silent sculptor.