This work is part of a series of portraits of Scottish poets commissioned by the Scottish Arts Council. At this time in Scotland there existed an outstanding generation of poets which included Iain Crichton Smith. Smith wrote poetry in both English and Gaelic, and his long poem `Am Faigh a Ghaidhlig Eas?? (Shall Gaelic Die?) ponders the fate of that language and culture.
Alexander Moffat (Scottish, born 1943)
Born in Dunfermline, Moffat studied at Edinburgh College of Art from 1960 to 64. Alongside his friend John Bellany, Moffat emerged as one of the Scottish Realists, so-called because of their social awareness and rejection of the decorative principles that defined much Scottish art during the first half of the twentieth century. Moffat was particularly close to the poet Hugh MacDiarmid and his literary circle. From 1979 Moffat taught at Glasgow School of Art where he encouraged a new generation of Scottish figurative painters including Peter Howson, Ken Currie and Steven Campbell.
