Ian Hamilton Finlay

Life

Finlay was born in Nassau, Bahamas, to James Hamilton Finlay and his wife, Annie Pettigrew, both of Scots descent.

He was educated at Dollar Academy in Clackmannanshire and later at Glasgow School of Art. At the age of 13, with the outbreak of the Second World War, he was evacuated to family in the countryside (firstly to Gartmore and then to Kirkcudbright). In 1942, he joined the British Army. Finlay was married twice and had two children, Alec and Ailie. Throughout his life, he suffered severely from agoraphobia. He died in Edinburgh in 2006.{{cite news

Poetry

At the end of the war, Finlay worked as a shepherd, before beginning to write short stories and poems, while living on Rousay, in Orkney. He published his first book, The Sea Bed and Other Stories, in 1958, with some of his plays broadcast on the BBC, and some stories featured in The Glasgow Herald.

His first collection of poetry, The Dancers Inherit the Party, was published in 1960 by Migrant Press with a second edition published in 1962. The third edition, published by Fulcrum Press (London) in 1969, included a number of new poems and was inaccurately described by the publisher as a first edition, which led to a complex legal dispute. Dancers was included in its entirety in a New Directions annual a few years later.

In 1963, Finlay published Rapel, his first collection of concrete poetry (poetry in which the layout and typography of the words contributes to its overall effect), and it was as a concrete poet that he first gained wide renown. Much of this work was issued through his own Wild Hawthorn Press, in his magazine Poor. Old. Tired. Horse.

Finlay became notable as a poet, when reducing the monostich form to one word with his concrete poems in the 1960s. Repetition, imitation and tradition lay at the heart of Hamilton's poetry, and exploring "the juxtaposition of apparently opposite ideas".

Art

Later, Finlay began to compose poems to be inscribed into stone, incorporating these sculptures into the natural environment. This kind of 'poem-object' features in the garden Little Sparta that he and Sue Finlay created together in the Pentland Hills near Edinburgh, although Finlay was always explicit that while "the original brief suggests sculpture being added to the garden, but I had them revise this to the understanding that the work would be the garden itself." The five-acre garden also includes more conventional sculptures and two garden temples.

In December 2004, in a poll conducted by Scotland on Sunday, a panel of fifty artists, gallery directors and arts professionals voted Little Sparta to be the most important work of Scottish art. Second and third were the Glasgow School of Art by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and The Skating Minister by Henry Raeburn. Sir Roy Strong has said of Little Sparta that it is "the only really original garden made in this country since 1945".

The Little Sparta Trust plans to preserve Little Sparta for the nation by raising enough to pay for an ongoing maintenance fund. Richard Ingleby, Ian Kennedy, Magnus Linklater, and Ann Uppington are trustees. Former trustees include Ian Appleton, Stephen Bann, Stephen Blackmore, Patrick Eyres, John Leighton, Duncan Macmillan, Victoria Miro, Paul Nesbitt and Jessie Sheeler.

Finlay's work is notable for a number of recurring themes: a penchant for classical writers (especially Virgil); a concern with fishing and the sea; an interest in the French Revolution; and a continual revisiting of World War II and the memento mori Latin phrase Et in Arcadia ego. His 1973 screenprint of a tank camouflaged in a leaf pattern, Arcadia, referring to the Utopian Arcadia of poetry and art (another recurring theme), is described by the Tate as drawing "an ironic parallel between this idea of a natural paradise and the camouflage patterns on a tank". In the 1982 exhibition The Third Reich Revisited, Nazi iconography featured on architectural drawings by Ian Appleton, with captions by Finlay which could be read as a sardonic critique of Scotland's arts establishment.

Finlay's use of Nazi imagery led to an accusation of neo-Nazi sympathies and antisemitism. Finlay sued a Paris magazine which had made such accusations, and was awarded nominal damages of one franc. The stress of this situation brought about the separation between Finlay and his wife Sue.

Finlay also came into conflict with the Strathclyde Regional Council over his liability for rates on a byre in his garden, which the council insisted was being used as commercial premises. Finlay insisted that it was a garden temple.

One of the few gardens outside Scotland to permanently display his work is the Improvement Garden in Stockwood Discovery Centre, Luton, created in collaboration with Sue Finlay, Gary Hincks and Nicholas Sloan.

Finlay was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1985. He was awarded honorary doctorates from Aberdeen University in 1987, Heriot-Watt University in 1993 and the University of Glasgow in 2001, and an honorary and/or visiting professorship from the University of Dundee in 1999. The French Communist Party presented him with a bust of Saint-Just in 1991. He received the Scottish Horticultural Medal from the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society in 2002, and the Scottish Arts Council Creative Scotland Award in 2003. Finlay was appointed a CBE in the Queen's 2002 New Year Honours.

Finlay's work has been seen as austere, but also at times witty, or even darkly whimsical.

He is represented by the Wild Hawthorn Press, the Archive of Ian Hamilton Finlay, which works closely with the Ingleby Gallery (Edinburgh) and the Victoria Miro Gallery (London) in the U.K.

Collaborators

Finlay's designs were most often built by others.{{cite news | access-date = 10 November 2006 | access-date = 10 November 2006 | access-date = 10 November 2006

Printed works

• Wild Hawthorn Press
• Little Sparta Trust
• Ingleby Gallery
• National Galleries of Scotland
• Victoria Miro Gallery
• Tate
• UK Government Art Collection
• Art Gallery of New South Wales

Sculptures and gardens

A partial list of Finlay sculptures and gardens. |access-date = 16 November 2006 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060112064722/http://www.peter-coates.com/bio/bio.html |archive-date = 12 January 2006

• Little Sparta, (with Sue Finlay), Dunsyre, Lanarkshire, Scotland, 1966
• Canterbury sundial, Canterbury, England, University of Kent, near Rutherford College, 1972
• UNDA wall, Schiff, Windflower, Stuttgart, Germany, Max Planck Institute, 1975
• anteboreum, Yorkshire, England, private garden
• sundial, Liège, Belgium, University of Liège, 1976
• sundial, Bonn, Germany, British Embassy, 1979
• Five Columns for the Kröller-Müller, second title: A Fifth Column for the Kröller-Müller, third title: Corot – Saint-Just, tree-column bases named LYCURGUS, ROUSSEAU, ROBESPIERRE, MICHELET, COROT, Otterlo, the Netherlands, Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller, 1982
• sundial, Cherrybank Gardens, Perth, 1984
• a basket of lemons, a plough of the Roman sort, two oval plaques, Pistoia, Italy, Villa Celle, 1984
• Vienna, Austria, Schweizergarten, 1985
• Brittany, France, Domain de Kerguehennec, 1986
• Eindhoven, the Netherlands, Van Abbemuseum, 1986
• A Remembrance of Annette, with Nicholas Sloan, Münster, Germany, Uberwasser Cemetery, 1987
• UNDA, with Sue Finlay and Nicholas Sloan, San Diego, Stuart Collection, 1987
• Furka Pass, Switzerland, 1987
• Strasbourg, France, Musée d'Art Moderne or Musée des Beaux-Arts, 1988
• Grove of Silence, Vincennes, with Sue Finlay and Nicholas Sloan, Forest of Dean, England, 1988
• Frechen-Bachem, Germany, Haus Bitz, 1988
• Preston, England, Harris Museum and Art Gallery, 1989
• Cologne, Germany, Ungers Private Library, 1990
• bridge columns, Broomielaw, Glasgow, Scotland, 1990
• Ovid wall, Aphrodite herm, tree-plaque, capital, with Nicholas Sloan, Luton, England, Stockwood Park, 1991
• tree-plaque, Hennef, Germany, private garden, 1991
• Lübeck, Germany, Overbeck-Gesellschaft, 1991
• Karlsruhe, Germany, Baden State Library, 1991
• Dudley, England, The Leasowes, 1992
• Six Milestones, The Hague-Zoetermeer, the Netherlands, 1992
• Paris, France, private garden, 1993
• Frankfurt/Main, Germany, Schröder Münchmeyer Hengst & Co, 1994
• stone bench, stone plinth, three plaques. pergola, tree-plaque, others, Grevenbroich, Germany, 1995, named: Ian-Hamilton-Finlay-Park 2014
• Foxgloves, with Peter Coates, Durham, UK, Botanic Gardens, 1996
• Shell Research Centre Thornton grounds, Finlay and Pia Simig with or for Latz+Partner, Chester, UK, 1997–
• paving, eight benches, tree plaque, with Peter Coates, Serpentine Gallery, Kensington Gardens, London, UK, 1997
• Fleur de l'Air, with Pia Simig, Peter Coates, Volkmar Herre, Harry Gilonis, John Dixon Hunt, Wild Hawthorn Press, Provence, France, 1997–2003
• Et In Arcadia Ego, with Peter Coates for Stroom, The Hague, the Netherlands, 1998 (see Fashion, art, society in Camouflage)
• The Present Order, with Peter Coates, for Barcelona City Council, supported by the British Council, Barcelona, Spain, Park Güell, 1999
• Petrarch in Island of Sculptures, Pontevedra, Galicia, 1999
• with Peter Coates, Hamburg, Germany, 1999
• benches, with Peter Coates, Erfurt, Germany, Erfurt Federal Labour Court, 1999
• Cythera, with Peter Coates, Lanarkshire, Scotland, Hamilton Palace grounds, 2000
• Six Definitions, Dean Gallery grounds, Edinburgh, Scotland, National Galleries of Scotland, 2001
• Ripple with Peter Coates, Luxembourg, Casino Luxembourg, 2001 or 2002
• with Peter Coates, Neanderthal, Germany, 2002
• with Peter Coates, Carrara, Italy, Carrara International Biennale, 2002
• Basel, Switzerland, with Peter Coates, 2003
• with Peter Coates, St. Gallan, Switzerland, private residence, 2004
• seven Idylls, Dean Gallery allotments, Edinburgh, Scotland, Dean Gallery Allotments Association, 2005
• L'Idylle des Cerises with Pia Maria Simig (with Peter Coates), Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland, preparatory drawings and sculpture, 2005

Books by Finlay

• Original: 1960 Migrant Press, 1961 Wild Hawthorn Press, 1961 Wild Flounder Press, 1969 Fulcrum Press, 1995 or 1996 or 1997 Polygon .

Bibliography==<!--

• Querelle d'artistes sur fond de bicentenaire - Les douteuses provocations de M. Finlay - Article publié le 13 Mai 1989 Par PLENEL EDWY Source : http://www.lemonde.fr
• Abrioux, Yves: Ian Hamilton Finlay. A Visual Primer. London 1992
• Zdenek, Felix/ Simig, Pia: Ian Hamilton Finlay. Works in Europe 1972–1995. Ostfildern 1995
• Finlay, Ian Hamilton: The Dancers Inherit the Party and Glasgow Beasts, An' a Burd. Polygon 2004
• Weilacher, Udo: "Poetry in Nature Unredeemed – Ian Hamilton Finlay" (Interview) in: Weilacher, Udo: Between Landscape Architecture and Land Art. Basel Berlin Boston 1999 --
• {{cite book
• {{cite news | access-date = 19 November 2006
• {{cite web | orig-year = acquired 1989, completed 27 February 1997, revised March 2004
• {{cite book
• {{cite book
• {{cite book
• {{cite book
• {{cite book
• {{cite journal | access-date = 18 November 2006
• {{cite book
• {{cite book |access-date = 11 November 2006 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060129064742/http://www.tate.org.uk/learning/schools/ianhamiltonfinlay2365.shtm |archive-date = 29 January 2006 |url-status = dead
• {{cite book | access-date = 11 November 2006
• {{cite book | access-date = 11 November 2006 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120205235347/http://www.littlesparta.co.uk/contact.htm | archive-date = 5 February 2012 | url-status = dead
• {{cite web | access-date=18 November 2006
• {{cite web | access-date=19 November 2006
• {{cite magazine | access-date=27 August 2024

References

Sources

• Eyres, Patrick (1982), The Third Reich Revisited, in Hearn, Sheila G. (ed.), Cencrastus No. 10, Autumn 1982, pp. 23 – 27,
• {{cite web | access-date = 11 November 2006
• {{cite news | access-date = 10 November 2006 | author-link = BBC News Online
• {{cite web |access-date=10 November 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071008050057/http://www.creativescotland.org.uk/ArtistDetails.aspx?ProjectId=34 |archive-date=8 October 2007 |url-status=dead
• {{cite news | access-date = 17 November 2006
• Craig, Cairns (2010). "Finlay, Ian Hamilton", in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online, accessed 29 September 2016. .
• {{cite web | access-date = 11 November 2006
• {{cite news | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080520121728/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,60-2106313,00.html | url-status = dead | archive-date = 20 May 2008 | access-date = 10 November 2006
• {{cite news | access-date = 10 November 2006 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061113054439/http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/article354247.ece | archive-date = 13 November 2006
• {{cite web |access-date=11 November 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060926041408/http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/turnerprize/history/artists.htm |archive-date=26 September 2006
• {{cite web |access-date = 10 November 2006 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061229235541/http://www.royalcaledonianhorticulturalsociety.org/awards.htm |archive-date = 29 December 2006 |url-status = dead

References

1. Tate. "'Sea Poppy I [collaboration with Alistair Cant]', Ian Hamilton Finlay, 1966 – Tate".
2. Tate. "'Starlit Waters', Ian Hamilton Finlay, 1967 – Tate".
3. Tate. "'The Little Seamstress [collaboration with Richard Demarco]', Ian Hamilton Finlay, 1970 – Tate".
4. [http://www.ianhamiltonfinlay.com/images/ihfcard/treeshells.jpg "Tree-Shells".]
5. Campbell, James. (17 November 2012). "Ian Hamilton Finlay: the concrete poet as avant gardener". The Guardian.
6. "Little Sparta goes a long way in poll on Scotland's greatest art".
7. "Ian Hamilton Finlay's Agoraphobia, New Exhibition in Glasgow".
8. Finlay, Alec. (1996). "The Dancers Inherit the Party and Glasgow Beasts". Polygon.
9. Kettle's Yard Guide, Cambridge 2008 {{ISBN. 9781904561279
10. Hirsch, Edward, ''A Poets Glossary'', Houghton Mifflin HRcourt, Boston, 2014, {{ISBN. 9780151011957.
11. Perloff, Marjorie Review 'Dreams of Weeds' T L S London April 29, 2005.
12. Matsumoto, Lila 'Imitation, Reflection, Tradition: Some Reflections on the Poetry of Ian Hamilton Finlay' Forum Issue 15, University of Edinburgh Autumn 2012
13. ''Beauty and Revolution : The Poetry and Art of Ian Hamilton Finlay'', Kettle's Yard Exhibition Catalogue (Teachers Resource) Cambridge, 2014.
14. (2015). "Little Sparta: A Guide to the Garden of Ian Hamilton Finlay". Birlinn Ltd.
15. "Home | the Scotsman".
16. Martell, Peter. (5 December 2004). "Little Sparta goes a long way in poll on Scotland's greatest art". [[The Scotsman]].
17. Gibbons, Fiachra. (30 June 2003). "Penniless poet's vision that bloomed". Guardian News and Media Limited.
18. "Little Sparta Trust website".
19. "Ingleby Gallery".
20. "Ann Uppington, Uppington Gardens - Landscape Designer, Garden Tour Guide, Public Presentations".
21. "Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh – Regius Keeper's message".
22. "New Arcadian Press".
23. (July 2008). "Ian Hamilton Finlay: Arcadia (collaboration with George Oliver)". Tate.
24. Eyres, Patrick (1982), ''The Third Reich Revisited'' in Hearn, Sheila G. (ed.), ''[[Cencrastus]]'' No. 10, Autumn 1982, pp. 23 - 27, {{issn. 0264-0856
25. Craig (2010)
26. The Times, Jonathan. (28 March 2006). "Ian Hamilton Finlay: Scottish poet and artist who turned his Lanarkshire grounds into Little Sparta, a celebrated shrine to pacifism". Times Newspapers Ltd.
27. "Turner Prize 1985 artists: Ian Hamilton Finlay – Tate".
28. "Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh: Honorary Graduates".
29. "RCHS – Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society – Caley Scottish Gardening Society Scotland".
30. "Creative Scotland Awards - Artist Details".
31. The Little Sparta Trust. (2006). "Ian Hamilton Finlay".
32. "Ian Hamilton Finlay". Ingleby Gallery.
33. "Ian Hamilton Finlay". [[Victoria Miro Gallery]].
34. Exhibition catalogue ''Beauty and Revolution: The Poetry and Art of Ian Hamililton Finlay'', Kettle's Yard, Cambridge, 2014.
35. Tate. "‘Star/Steer’, Ian Hamilton Finlay, 1966 – Tate".
36. http://www.nationalgalleries.org/collections/artist search.php?objectId=15860
37. "Ian-Hamilton-Finlay-Park".
38. {{Historic Environment Scotland
39. The Trustees of Indiana University. (n.d.). "IU Lilly Library".
40. Ingleby Gallery. (n.d.). "Bookshop and Editions".