Ian Hamilton Finlay

Biographical Sketch

1925:

Born in Nassau, Bahamas.
Returned to Scotland as a child, briefly attended Glasgow School of art. Read books on cubism and surrealism.

1942:

Entered British army, served three and a half years.
Became friendly with the artists Colquhoun, MacBryde, John Minton.

Post WWII:

Worked as a shepherd and agricultural laborer, began writing short stories and then short plays.

Late 1950's:

Moved to Edinburgh, began writing rhyming poems.

1961:

The Wild Hawthorn Press co-founded by Finlay. Over a period of time, the Press came to concentrate exclusively on Finlay's works.

1963:

Exhibition of toys at the home of the publisher John Calder. Began moving towards concrete poetry.
Canal Stripe Series 3 Finlay's first published booklet-poem (it was a concrete poem). Works from this series were made into kinetic constructions, attacking traditional book form in two ways.
Poster Poem (le Circus) published, the first in a series of poem/prints, another innovation.

1965-7:

Under the general classification of a "new classicism", Finlay began to investigate the inscription of the poem in the world and the transcendence of the sign through metaphor.

1966:

Settles at Stonypath, an abandoned hillside croft in the Southern Uplands of Scotland, with wife (Sue) and two children. They immediately begin to create their famous garden.

1967:

Boat names and registration numbers begin to appear in Finlay's works.

1968:

First 1-man exhibition at the Axiom Gallery, London.

Early 1970's:

Garden at Stonypath begins to take more coherent shape. Image of the modern warship began to replace the fishing boat as a primary theme, and his "neoclassical rearmament project" began to emerge more clearly.

1972:

The Weed Boat Masters Ticket booklet published, the first in a series of question booklets intended to challenge the literary and artistic competence of his readers.

1976-7:

Large neon works and Battle of Midway Tableau (in collaboration with James Stoddart and James Boyd) for Finlay's Serpentine exhibition in 1977.

1977:

Lyre, on show at Silver Jubilee Exhibition of Contemporary Sculpture, Battersea Park, London. Consists of an actual Oerlikon gun standing on concrete slabs and accompanied by a quotation referring to Heraclitus from Edmund Hussey's book The Presocratics.
Publication of Finlay's Heroic Emblems.

1978:

Withdrawal of Serpentine traveling exhibition from the Scottish Arts Council's Charlotte Square Gallery, Edinburgh, just before the planned opening, in protest against actions of SAC officials. Finlay comments: "Beyond the prosaic level already alluded to, what I was aware of was, that the absence of the works was a clearer statement of their content, than the works themselves could have been, in that circumstance. In short, the absence of the exhibition was the exhibition...." Marked the beginning of a long-standing quarrel with the SAC.
Finlay embarked on a "Five Year Hellenisation Plan" for his garden at Stonypath, subsequently renamed Little Sparta.
Beginning of Finley's "Free Arts" project, an answer to the problem of the dominance of state-aided art within a pluralist democracy.

2/4/1983:

After a long period of verbal skirmishes, the First Battle of Little Sparta took place, when the local sheriff officer unsuccessfully attempted to seize works from the Stonypath's Garden Temple.

3/15/83:

Budget Day Raid. The sheriff officer removed from Finlay's Temple a number of works, including some Finlay did not own but were on loan, which he placed an undisclosed bank vault.

1983:

Monumental stone inscription - "The Present Order is the Disorder of the Future" Saint- Just, exhibited at the Sculpture Show, Hayward Gallery, London.

1984:

Exhibition of tree-plaques in the Merian-Park, Basel, and of Talismans and Signifiers, and at the Graeme Murray Gallery, Edinburgh and subsequently in the British Council's British Show in Australia; completed Third Reich Revisited, together with Heroic Ephemera from the Little Spartan War, in a touring exhibition organized by Southampton Art Gallery.

1989:

Received commission for the bicentennial celebrations of the French Revolution.

Selected Bibliography

• Abrioux, Yves. Ian Hamilton Finlay: A Visual Primer. Reaktion Books, Edinburgh, Scotland. 1985.
• Finlay, Ian Hamilton. Canal Stripe Series 3. Wild Hawthorn Press. 1963.
• Finlay, Ian Hamilton, and Costley, Ron. Heroic Emblems. Z Press, Calais, Vermont. 1977.

This information was compiled by Gardner Smith (2-14-97).

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