Why is one of those small words which carries a heavy load, though of its kind – see also: if, and, but – it’s the one with the strongest back.

For that reason, and also because it was embedded in the sound of his own surname, the word was a great favourite of George Wyllie’s. So much so that it became a kind of trademark for the Glasgow-born artist, both in its written form and as a punctuation mark.

He liked to refer to himself as a scul?tor, for instance, and not just because it vexed prissy sub-editors on the newspapers which came to call – publications like this one, on whose behalf I once made the journey to his home in Gourock to spend an hour or so in the company of the genial, self-taught polymath.

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No, it went deeper than that, which is the reason Scottish film-maker Murray Grigor gave his 1990 documentary about Wyllie the title The Why?s Man: In Pursuit Of The Question Mark.

Say it a certain way and whys man sounds like wise man. That works for Wyllie too. “Playfully serious” is how he is described........

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