Book excerpt: The visual arts throughout the post-war era have made an invaluable contribution to the cultural development of modern and contemporary Scotland. Joan Eardley, Alan Davie, Eduardo Paolozzi, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Boyle Family, Craigie Aitchison, Barbara Rae John Bellany, Alexander Moffat, John McLean, Bill Scott, Joyce Cairns, Steven Campbell, Ken Currie, Lys Hansen, Alison Watt, Douglas Gordon and Kevin Harman – these are some of the artists whose work reflects the radical and complex transformations of the post-war period. These Scottish artists not only observed and absorbed the socio-economic and technological changes taking place during this era, but also devised a wide range of innovative ways to represent and creatively re-present those changes and their powerful impact on our times. Through a compilation of in-depth interviews with the artists themselves and accompanying critical essays, Bill Hare here examines the richly diverse work of these important figures in modern and contemporary visual culture, revealing the intellectual power and artistic imagination of those who have created one of the greatest eras in the history of Scottish art.