Ian Hamilton Finlay (British, –2006)

Timeline

1925
Born in Nassau, Bahamas. Moved to Glasgow, Scotland as a child
1950
Moved to Edinburgh
1961
Founded The Wild Hawthorn Press with Jessie McGuffie
1962
Founded the periodical ‘Poor. Old. Tired. Horse.’offset at the Wild Hawthorn Press.
1966
Moved to Stonypath in the Southern Uplands of Scotland, where he immediately set about creating the world-famous garden ‘Little Sparta’
1979–1984
Founded the Saint – Just Vigilantes and planned and took part in the First Battle of Little Sparta, February 4, 1983 (between Strathclyde Region and Little Sparta)
1985
Shortlisted for the Turner Prize, Tate Gallery, London
1987
Awarded Honorary Doctorate by the University of Aberdeen
1993
Awarded Honorary Doctorate from the Heriot-Watt University, Glasgow
1999
Awarded honorary professorship from the University of Dundee
2003
Awarded CBE in New Year’s Honors
2003
Awarded Scottish Horticultural Medal by the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society
2003
Scottish Arts Council Creative Scotland Award
2006
Died, Lanark, Scotland

Exhibitions

2018
Ian Hamilton Finlay Selected Exhibitions in 2018:
Ian Hamilton Finlay: “The garden became my study,” David Nolan Gallery, New York, NY (solo exhibition)
Thinking Machines, Fondazione Prada, Venice, Italy
TWENTY, Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland
2017
Ian Hamilton Finlay Selected Exhibitions in 2017:
Ian Hamilton Finlay, Galerie Hubert Winter, Vienna, Austria (solo exhibition)
Concrete Poetry: Words and Sounds in Graphic Space, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, CA
Creating the Countryside, Compton Verney, Warwickshire, UK
Ian Hamilton Finlay exhibition and talk, Ilkley Literature Festival, UK
2016
Ian Hamilton Finlay Selected Exhibitions in 2016:
St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, UK (solo exhibition)
Ian Hamilton Finlay: Neoclassicism and Revolution, Pallant House Gallery, Chirchester, UK (solo exhibition)
Ian Hamilton Finlay: Early Works (1958 – 1970), Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland (solo exhibition)
George Grosz: Politics and His Influence, David Nolan Gallery, New York, NY
Words, Words, Words, Charles Nodrum Gallery, Richmond, Australia
Protest, Victoria Miro, London, UK
I still believe in miracles: Celebrating 30 years of Inverleith House, Inverleith House, Edinburgh, Scotland
2015
Three Sailboats, Kunsthalle Göppingen, Germany (solo)
2015
Ian Hamilton Finlay | 1789 1794, Victoria Miro Gallery, London, UK (solo)
2015
Evening, Galerie Stampa, Basel, Switzerland (solo)
2014
Terra Mare, Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon (solo)
2014
Ian Hamilton Finlay: Arcadian Revolutionary and Avant-Gardener, DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, USA (solo)
2013
Ring of Waves, David Nolan Galley, New York, USA (solo)
2013
Artist Rooms: Ian Hamilton Finlay, Nature Over Again After Poussin 1979- 1980, The Park Gallery, Falkirk, Scotland (solo)
2013
Printed Works, Hiram Butler Gallery, USA
 (solo)
2013
Ian Hamilton Finlay, Tate Britain, London, UK (solo)
2013
Ian Hamilton Finlay: Poet, Artist, Revolutionary, Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, Scotland (solo)
2012
Ian Hamilton Finlay - Twilight Remembers, Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland (solo)
2012
Ian Hamilton Finlay, Duveen galleries of Tate Britain, London, UK (solo)
2011
Definitions, Victoria Miro Gallery, London, UK (solo)
2011
Ian Hamilton Finlay - Mean Terms, Galleria Massimo Minini, Brescia, Italy (solo)
2009
Camouflage, David Nolan Gallery, New York, UK (solo)
2008
(Neo)Classicism – A Noble Arrow, Nolan Judin, Berlin, Germany (solo)
2008
Druckgrafik, Kunsthalle Bremen, Germany (solo)
2008
Neoclassicism – A Noble Arrow, Nolan Judin Berlin (solo)
2008
Conversations, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, UK
2007
Ian Hamilton Finlay & Cerith Wyn Evans, Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh
2007
The Sonnet is a Sewing-Machine for the Monostich, Victoria Miro Gallery, London (solo)
2006
Tate Triennial, Tate Britain, London
2006
Certain Trees: The Constructed Book, Poem and Object 1964-2006, Centre des Livres D’Artistes, Saint-Yrieix-La-Perche
2006
Word Power: Concrete Poetry and it’s Influences, Peacock Visual Arts, Aberdeen & the Changing Room, Stirling
2006
How to Change the World: 60 Years of British Art, Arts Council Collection, Hayward Gallery, London
2005
Down the Garden Path: The Artist's Garden After Modernism, Queens Museum of Art, New York
2005
Edition, Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh
2005
Nolan/Eckman Gallery, New York (solo)
2005
Sentences, Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh (solo)
2005
L’Idylle des Cerises, Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh (solo)
2005
Early Works from the Wild Hawthorne Press, 1964-1971, National Scottish Poetry Library, Edinburgh (solo)
2005
Of Conceits and Collaborators, National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh (solo)
2004
Nolan/Eckman Gallery, New York (solo)
2004
Works on Paper, 1968-2000, UBS Gallery, New York (solo)
2004
Vessels, The Arts Club of Chicago, Chicago (solo)
2004
Art and the Garden, Tate Britain, London
2004
Bang, Colgate University, Hamilton, New York
2003
Idylls and Interventions, Victoria Miro Gallery, London (solo)
2002
Maritime Works, Tate St. Ives, Cornwall, England; Nolan/Eckman Gallery, New York (solo)
2002
Ian Hamilton Finlay, Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh (solo)
2001
Souvenirs & Postcards by Ian Hamilton Finlay, The Scottish National Gallery of Art, Edinburgh (solo)
2001
Ian Hamilton Finlay, Stampa, Basel (solo)
2000
Garden Works, Nolan/Eckman Gallery, New York (solo)
2000
Souvenirs, Städtische Galerie Grevenbroich im Haus Hartmann, Grevenbroich, Germany (solo)
2000
Ian Hamilton Finlay/Richard Tuttle, Stampa, Basel (solo)
2000
Nature Over Again After Poussin, McMaster Museum of Art, Hamilton (solo)
2000
Encounters, National Gallery, London
1999
Heads Will Roll, Victoria Miro Gallery, London
1999
Musee d’Art Contemporain de Montreal, Montreal
1999
La Biennale de Montreal, Centre International d’Art, Montreal
1999
Variation on Several Themes, Joan Miro Foundation, Barcelona (solo)
1998
Modern Antiquities, Landesmuseum, Mainz, Germany (solo)
1998
Les Capteurs de Rives, 1st Biennale de Montreal, commissaire; Claude Gosselin, Montreal
1997
Material Culture, Hayward Gallery, London
1997
Grenzgänger, Deutscher Sparkassen Verlag, Stuttgart
1997
The Pleasure of Reading, John Gibson Gallery, New York
1997
Wortwechsel, Künstlerwerkstatt Lothringer Str., Munich
1997
Prints, 1963-1997 (traveling exhibition), Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund (solo)
1997
Stadsgalerij, Heerlen, Netherlands (solo)
1997
Galerie Stadtpark, Krems, Austria (solo)
1997
Buro Sophia Ungers, Cologne (solo)
1997
Wild Hawthorne Press, Academie Beelende Kunsten, Maastricht (solo)
1996
Reef-Points, Nolan/Eckman Gallery, New York (solo)
1996
Grains of Salt, Oriel Mostyn, Llandudno, Wales (solo)
1996
Galerie Stampa, Zurich
1996
Schwere-Los-Skulpturen, Landesmuseum Linz
1996
Public Works, Peninsula & Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven
1995
Wege der Birke, Bern
1995
Where is Abel, Thy Brother? The Zacheta Gallery, Warsaw
1995
Lesen im Buch der Kunst, Library of Baden, Karlsruhe
1995
The Green Room, Sydney Gardens, Bath
1995
Paperworks, Stampa, Basel (solo)
1995
Works: Pure and Political, Deichtorhalle, Hamburg (solo)
1995
70th Birthday Show, Victoria Miro Gallery, London (solo)
1995
Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge (solo)
1994
Streiflichter: Fragments from the French Revolution, Nolan/Eckman Gallery, New York (solo)
1994
3 Sailboats, Victoria Miro Gallery, London (solo)
1994
Icons and Proposals, Laumeire Sculpture Park and Museum, St. Louis (solo)
1994
Das Jahrhundert des Multiple, Deichtorhallen, Hamburg
1994
East of Eden, Museum Schloss Mosigkau, Dessau-Mosigkau, Germany
1994
Translokation, Haus der Architektur, Graz
1993
CAYC, Buenos Aires (solo)
1993
Tate Gallery, London (solo)
1993
Wildwachsende Blumen, Lenbachhaus, Munich (solo)
1993
The Sonnet is a Sewing Machine for the Monositch, Crawford Arts Centre, St. Andrews (solo)
1993
12/1794, Galerie Busche, Berlin (solo)
1993
Inscriptions, Massimo Minini Gallery, Brescia (solo)
1993
A Proposal for the Leasowes and Other Works, MBC Dudley, England (solo)
1993
Konfrontation, Museum Moderner Kunst, Vienna
1993
Die Sprache der Kunst, Kunsthalle Wien, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt
1993
Skultur statt Denkmal, Galerie Fricke, Düsseldorf
1993
Words, Galerie Sfeir-Semler at the Galerie Jergen Becker, Hamburg
1992
Three British Book Artists', Mandeville Gallery, Univ. of California, San Diego
1992
Force Sight, Schloss Presteneck, Neuenstadt, Stein am Kocher, Germany
1992
Lux Eurpoae, Lux Europae Trust, Edinburgh
1992
Verzmelde Werken, Centrum Beeldende Kunst, Groningen, Netherlands
1992
Instruments of the Revolution and Other Works, Institute of Contemporary Art, London (solo)
1992
City Art Gallery, Leeds (solo)
1992
10 Maquettes for Neo-Classical Structures, Victoria Miro Gallery, London (solo)
1991
Ideologische Äusserungen, Kunstverein Frankfurt, Frankfurt (solo)
1991
Gallery Stadtpark, Krems, Austria (solo)
1991
Tate Gallery, Liverpool (solo)
1991
Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford (solo)
1991
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia (solo)
1991
Gulfs and Wars, Kunstverein Friedrichshafen (solo)
1991
Malerisamling Lillehammer, Lillehammer (solo)
1991
Pastorales, Overbeck-Gesellschaft, Lübeck, Germany (solo)
1991
Definitions, Galerie Sfeir-Semler, Kiel, Germany (solo)
1991
The Poor Fisherman, Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh (solo)
1991
Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford (solo)
1991
Ian Hamilton Finlay & The Wild Hawthorne Press, Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh (solo)
1991
A Wartime Garden, Galleria Victoria Miro, Florence (solo)
1991
Rhetorical Image, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York Metropolis, Berlin
1991
Night Lines, Centraalmuseum, Utrecht
1991
Virtual Realities, Traveling Gallery Exhibition, Scotland
1990
Von der Natur in der Kunst, Messepalast, Vienna
1990
Allegorie, Galerie Sfeir-Demmle, Kiel
1990
Glasgow’s Great British Art Exhibition, Messepalast Halle E, Vienna
1990
Poesis, Graeme Murray Gallery, Edinburgh
1990
British Art Now: A Subjective View, Stagaya Art Museum, Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan
1990
Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland (solo)
1990
Galerie Schedle & Arpagas, Zurich (solo)
1990
ACTA & Galleria, Milano (solo)
1990
Stampa, Basel (solo)
1990
Christine Burgin, New York (solo)
1990
Galerie Jule Kewenig, Frechen, Bachem (solo)
1990
Idylls, Victoria Miro Gallery, London (solo)
1990
The Ocean and the Revolution, Burnett Miller Gallery, Los Angeles (solo)
1990
Ian Hamilton Finlay & the Wild Hawthorne Press 1958-1990, Firth Street Gallery, London (solo)
1990
Holzwege, Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Aachen (solo)
1990
A Wartime Garden, Graeme Murray Gallery, Edinburgh (solo)
1989
1789-1794, Kunsthalle Hamburg (solo)
1989
Galerie Wernicke, Stuttgart (solo)
1989
Städtische Galerie am Markt, Schwäbisch-Hall (solo)
1989
Paperworks, Galerie Hubert Winter, Vienna (solo)
1989
Works, Butler Gallery, Kilkenny Castle (solo)
1989
Bicentenary Celebrations, Kellie Lodging Gallery, Pittenween (solo)
1989
Prospect 89, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt
1989
2000 Jahre-Die Gegenwart der Vergangenheit, Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn
1989
Hier Wird Getanzt, XPO Galerie, Hamburg
1989
British Sculpture 1960-1988, Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Antwerpt
1989
Bühnen-Stücke, Kunstverein, Munich
1989
Freiheit-Gleichheit-Brüderlichkeit, Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg; Stampa, Basel
1988
Musee d’Art Contemporain, Dunkerque, France (solo)
1988
An Exhibition on Two Themes, Galerie Jule Kewenig, Frechen/Bachem, Germany (solo)
1988
Michael Klein Gallery, New York (solo)
1988
Starlit Waters: British Sculpture 1968-88, Tate Gallery, Liverpool
1988
Saturne en Europe, Musee de la Ville de Strasbourg
1988
Triennale Milano
1988
Pyramiden, Galerie Jule Kewenig, Frechen/Bachem
1988
Art in the Garden, Garden Festival, Glasgow
1988
Camouflage, Curt Marcus Gallery, New York
1988
Brittannica: 30 Ans de Sculpture, Le Havre
1988
Skulpturen Republik, exhibition of the Vienna Festival, Vienna
1987
Documenta 8, Kassel
1987
The Unpainted Landscape, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh
1987
Inter Artes et Naturam, Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (solo)
1987
Foundation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain, Jouy-en-Josas (solo)
1987
Midway, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris (solo)
1987
Pastorales, Galerie Claire Burrus, Paris (solo)
1987
Poursuites Revolutionnaires, Foundation Cartier pour l’Art, Jouy-en-Josas (solo)
1987
Homage to Ian Hamilton Finlay, Victoria Miro Gallery, London (solo)
1987
Monument to Feuerbach, Summer Exhibition, Antwerp
1987
Aphrodite of Terror, Edinburgh International Exhibition
1986
L’Art et le Sacre Aujourd’hui, Cistercian Abbey, L’Epau
1986
Between Object and Image, Madrid and Barcelona
1986
Ian Hamilton Finlay, Aberdeen Art Gallery, Aberdeen, Scotland (solo)
1986
Marat Assasine and Other Works, Victoria Miro Gallery, London (solo)
1985
Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool (solo)
1985
Eric Fabre Galerie, Paris (solo)
1985
Little Sparta and Kriegsschatz, Espace Romeau-Chapelle Sainte-Marie, Nevers (solo)
1985
Promenades, Parc Lullin, Geneva
1985
British Council Exhibition, Sydney, Australia
1984
Merian Park, Basel
1984
Talismans and Signifiers, Graeme Murray Gallery, Edinburgh (solo)
1984
Liberty, Terror and Virtue, City Art Gallery, Southampton (solo)
1984
Print Gallery, Peter Brattinga, Amsterdam (solo)
1983
Hayward Gallery, London
1981
Unnatural Pebbles, Graeme Murray Gallery, Edinburgh (solo)
1980
Rijksmuseum Kroller-Muller, Otterlo (solo)
1980
Nature Over Again After Poussin, Collins Exhibition Hall, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow (solo)
1980
Graeme Murray Gallery, Edinburgh (solo)
1977
Graeme Murray Gallery, Edinburgh (solo)
1977
Serpentine Gallery, London (solo)
1977
Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge (solo)
1977
Exhibition of Contemporary Sculpture, Battersea Park, London
1976
Coracle Press, London (solo)
1976
Homage to Watteau, Graeme Murray Gallery, Edinburgh (solo)
1976
City Art Gallery, Southampton (solo)
1974
National Maritime Museum, London (solo)
1972
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh (solo)
1971
Winchester College of Art (solo)
1970
Ceolfrith Bookshop Gallery, Sunderland (solo)
1969
Pittencreiff House, Dunfermline (solo)
1969
Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh (solo)
1968
Axiom Gallery, London (solo)

Literature

2007
Ian Hamilton Finlay: Remembrance, Professor Stephen Bann, Wild Hawthorn Press, Little Sparta, Victoria Miro Gallery
2004
Fleur de l’Air – A Garden in Provence, Ian Hamilton Finlay and Pia Simig, Wild Hawthorn Press
2004
Art of the Garden – The Garden in British Art 1800 to the Present Day, Tate Publishing
2003
Little Sparta – The Garden of Ian Hamilton Finlay, Jessie Sheeler, photographs by Andrew Lawson, Frances Lincoln Ltd
2002
Ian Hamilton Finlay – Maritime Works, Tate St.Ives, Cornwall
2000
Ian Hamilton Finlay, Concrete Poetry, Galeria Bielska BWA, Bielsko-Biala, Poland
1998
Ian Hamilton Finlay: A Proposal for the Grounds of the Serpentine Gallery, Little Sparta, Wild Hawthorn Press
1997
Ian Hamilton Finlay: Prints 1963 – 1997, PAHLKE, Rosemarie E., SIMIG, Pia, ed. Museum am Ostwall Dortmund, Statsgalerij Heerlen and Galerie Stadtpark Krems, Cantz Verlag
1995
Ian Hamilton Finlay: Works in Europe 1972-1995 Werke in Europa, , HUNT, John Dixon, GILONIS, Harry, -SIMIG, Pia, ed, Ostfildern, Cantz Verlag
1995
Wood Notes Wild - Essays on the Poetry and Art of Ian Hamilton Finlay, edited by Alec Finlay , Paragon, Edinburgh
1994
A Posse of Two: Lorine Niedecker and Ian Hamilton Finlay, Chapman
1993
Niedecker and the Correspondence with Zukofsky, 1931-1970. Penberthy, Jenny, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
1993
The Visible Language of Modernism, McGann, Jerome J., Black Riders Princeton, Princeton University Press
1992
Ian Hamilton Finlay: A Visual Primer. Yves Abrioux, introduction and commentaries, Stephen Bann. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
1992
POIESIS: Aspects of Contemporary Poetic Activity, Graeme Murray, Ed, The Fruit Market Gallery, Edinburgh
1991
EVENING WILL COME THEY WILL SEW THE BLUE SAIL, Ian Hamilton Finlay & the Wild Hawthorn Press 1958-1991, Edwin Morgan and Graeme Murray Ed, The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh
1991
Ian Hamilton Finlay: Poet of the Woodland, Krem, Galerie Stadtpark und Autoren
1991
Ezra Pound and the Monument of Culture: Text, History, and the Malatesta Cantos. Lawrence S., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
1991
Philosophical Fragments Schlegel, Friedrich, Trans. Peter Firchow. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press
1989
Nelson, Cary, Repression and Recovery: Modern American Poetry and the Politics of Cultural Memory 1910-1945. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press
1988
The Theory of Literature in German Romanticism. Lacoue-Labarthe, Philippe, and Nancy, Jean-Luc, Trans. Philip Barnard and Cheryl Lester. Albany: State University of New York Press
1987
Inter Artes et Naturam, Finlay, Ian Hamilton, Paris: ARC
1984
Letters, MacDiarmid, Hugh. Ed. Alan Bold. Athens: University of Georgia Press
1982
1789: The Emblems of Reason Starobinski, Jean,. Trans. Barbara Bray. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press
1981
Romanticism and the Forms of Ruin: Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Modalities of Fragmentation,Thomas Princeton: Princeton University Press
1980
Davenport, Guy, trans., Archilochus, Sappho, Alkman: Three Lyric Poets of the Seventh Century B.C., Berkeley: University of California Press
1971
The Pound Era, Kenner, Hugh. Berkeley: University of California Press
1967
Transformations in Late Eighteenth Century Art. Rosenblum, Robert, Princeton: Princeton, University Press
1963
Rapel, Finlay’s first selection of concrete poems
English (US)

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