VISUAL ARTS

Michael Hue-Williams, 21 Cork Street, London W1 (0171-434 1318). Until 22 November. Margaret Harvey Gallery, St Albans, Hertfordshire. Until 6 December

Andy Goldsworthy, one of this country's most inventive living artists, is probably responsible for more bad "sculptures" than any of his contemporaries. These are nothing directly to do with him but are made in imitation by folk on country walks. I know because I'm guilty. Goldsworthy has changed the way that we view our world. Where once we saw stones and twigs, we now see the materials for a bit of homemade land art.

Goldsworthy's gift is an ability to alter and re-order natural things in consistently surprising and beautiful ways. His work is preserved by the unique photographs which form the basis of his exhibiting career and in the pages of his books.

Books play a more useful role in looking at Goldsworthy's art than with any other artist that I can think of. The latest, Wood, is published this week to coincide with an exhibition of the same name at Michael Hue-Williams in Cork Street.

This show, a five part installation with only one photo-work, is tougher than some. A deliberate attempt, perhaps, to convert his public popularity into something more durable. In the present exhibition he has turned Hue- Williams's ground-floor window into a lattice screen of chestnut stems, and dwarfed the main gallery with a giant ball of stacked sticks.

More conventional drawings - on paper with a pencil - are on show in a second exhibition at the Margaret Harvey Gallery in St Albans. These are part of Sheepfolds: a wonderful scheme to re-construct 100 sheepfolds, each containing a sculpture, on sites across Cumbria. Historically each location was home to a sheepfold and at some sites the ruins remain.

EYE ON THE NEW

Flavour of the month is William Scott (1913-1989) whose work reached record prices in the last batch of Modern British auctions and whose estate has just been squired by the Bernard Jacobson Gallery. A dozen leading dealers included his work on their stands at the recent 20th- Century British Art Fair, and the first ever exhibition devoted to Scott's lithographs (see above) is currently at The Fine Art Society in London.

Fine Art Society, 148 New Bond St, London, W1 (0171-629 5116)