Biography |
| 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.’ |
| 1979-84 | Founded the Saint-Just Vigilantes and planned and took part in the First Battle of Little Sparta, Feb 2, 1983, between Strathclyde Region and Little Sparta |
| 1985 | Short listed for the Turner Prize, Tate Gallery, London |
| 1987 | Awarded Honorary Doctorate by the University of Aberdeen |
| 1993 | Awarded Honorary Doctorate from the Herio-Watt University, Glasgow |
| 1999 | Awarded honorary professorship from the University of Dundee |
| 2003 | Awarded CBE in New Year’s Honors |
| Awarded Scottish Horticultural Medal by the Royal Caledonian |
| Horticultural Society |
| Scottish Arts Council Creative Scotland Award |
| 2006 | Died, Lanark, Scotland |
| | |
Selected Solo Exhibitions |
| 2008 | Neoclassicism – A Noble Arrow, Nolan Judin Berlin |
| 2007 | The Sonnet is a Sewing-Machine for the Monostich, Victoria Miro Gallery, London |
| 2005 | Nolan/Eckman Gallery, New York |
| Sentences, Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh |
| L’Idylle des Cerises, Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh |
| Early Works from the Wild Hawthorne Press, 1964-1971, National Scottish Poetry Library, Edinburgh |
| Of Conceits and Collaborators, National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh |
| 2004 | Nolan/Eckman Gallery, New York |
| Works on Paper, 1968-2000, UBS Gallery, New York |
| Vessels, The Arts Club of Chicago, Chicago |
| 2003 | Idylls and Interventions, Victoria Miro Gallery, London |
| 2002 | Maritime Works, Tate St. Ives, Cornwall, England; Nolan/Eckman Gallery, New York |
| Ian Hamilton Finlay, Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh |
| 2001 | Souvenirs & Postcards by Ian Hamilton Finlay, The Scottish National Gallery of Art, Edinburgh |
| Ian Hamilton Finlay, Stampa, Basel |
| 2000 | Garden Works, Nolan/Eckman Gallery, New York |
| Souvenirs, Städtische Galerie Grevenbroich im Haus Hartmann, Grevenbroich, Germany |
| Ian Hamilton Finlay/Richard Tuttle, Stampa, Basel |
| Nature Over Again After Poussin, McMaster Museum of Art, Hamilton |
| 1999 | Variation on Several Themes, Joan Miro Foundation, Barcelona |
| 1998 | Modern Antiquities, Landesmuseum, Mainz |
| 1997 | Prints, 1963-1997 (traveling exhibition), Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund |
| Stadsgalerij, Heerlen |
| Galerie Stadtpark, Krems |
| Buro Sophia Ungers, Cologne |
| Wild Hawthorne Press, Academie Beelende Kunsten, Maastricht |
| 1996 | Reef-Points, Nolan/Eckman Gallery, New York |
| Grains of Salt, Oriel Mostyn, Llandudno, Wales |
| 1995 | Paperworks, Stampa, Basel |
| Works: Pure and Political, Deichtorhalle, Hamburg |
| 70th Birthday Show, Victoria Miro Gallery, London |
| Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge |
| 1994 | Streiflichter: Fragments from the French Revolution, Nolan/Eckman Gallery, New York |
| 3 Sailboats, Victoria Miro Gallery, London |
| Icons and Proposals, Laumeire Sculpture Park and Museum, St. Louis |
| 1993 | CAYC, Buenos Aires |
| Tate Gallery, London |
| Wildwachsende Blumen, Lenbachhaus, Munich |
| The Sonnet is a Sewing Machine for the Monositch, Crawford Arts Centre, St. Andrews |
| 12/1794, Galerie Busche, Berlin |
| Inscriptions, Massimo Minini Gallery, Brescia |
| A Proposal for the Leasowes and Other Works, MBC Dudley, England |
| 1992 | Instruments of the Revolution and Other Works, Institute of Contemporary Art, London |
| City Art Gallery, Leeds |
| 10 Maquettes for Neo-Classical Structures, Victoria Miro Gallery, London |
| 1991 | Ideologische Äusserungen, Kunstverein Frankfurt, Frankfurt |
| Gallery Stadtpark, Krems |
| Tate Gallery, Liverpool |
| Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford |
| Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia |
| Gulfs and Wars, Kunstverein Friedrichshafen |
| Malerisamling Lillehammer, Lillehammer |
| Pastorales, Overbeck-Gesellschaft, Lübeck |
| Definitions, Galerie Sfeir-Semler, Kiel |
| The Poor Fisherman, Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh |
| Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford |
| Ian Hamilton Finlay & The Wild Hawthorne Press, Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh |
| A Wartime Garden, Galleria Victoria Miro, Florence |
| 1990 | Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland |
| Galerie Schedle & Arpagas, Zurich |
| ACTA & Galleria, Milano |
| Stampa, Basel |
| Christine Burgin, New York |
| Galerie Jule Kewenig, Frechen, Bachem |
| Idylls, Victoria Miro Gallery, London |
| The Ocean and the Revolution, Burnett Miller Gallery, Los Angeles |
| Ian Hamilton Finlay & the Wild Hawthorne Press 1958-1990, Firth Street Gallery, London |
| Holzwege, Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Aachen |
| A Wartime Garden, Graeme Murray Gallery, Edinburgh |
| 1989 | 1789-1794, Kunsthalle Hamburg |
| Galerie Wernicke, Stuttgart |
| Städtische Galerie am Markt, Schwäbisch-Hall |
| Paperworks, Galerie Hubert Winter, Vienna |
| Works, Butler Gallery, Kilkenny Castle |
| Bicentenary Celebrations, Kellie Lodging Gallery, Pittenween |
| 1988 | Musee d’Art Contemporain, Dunkerque |
| An Exhibition on Two Themes, Galerie Jule Kewenig, Frechen/Bachem |
| Michael Klein Gallery, New York |
| 1987 | Inter Artes et Naturam, Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris |
| Foundation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain, Jouy-en-Josas |
| Midway, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris |
| Pastorales, Galerie Claire Burrus, Paris |
| Poursuites Revolutionnaires, Foundation Cartier pour l’Art, Jouy-en-Josas |
| Homage to Ian Hamilton Finlay, Victoria Miro Gallery, London |
| 1986 | Ian Hamilton Finlay, Aberdeen Art Gallery, Aberdeen |
| Marat Assasine and Other Works, Victoria Miro Gallery, London |
| 1985 | Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool |
| Eric Fabre Galerie, Paris |
| Little Sparta and Kriegsschatz, Espace Romeau-Chapelle Sainte-Marie, Nevers |
| 1984 | Talismans and Signifiers, Graeme Murray Gallery, Edinburgh |
| Liberty, Terror and Virtue, City Art Gallery, Southampton |
| Print Gallery, Peter Brattinga, Amsterdam |
| 1981 | Unnatural Pebbles, Graeme Murray Gallery, Edinburgh |
| 1980 | Rijksmuseum Kroller-Muller, Otterlo |
| Nature Over Again After Poussin, Collins Exhibition Hall, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow |
| Graeme Murray Gallery, Edinburgh |
| 1977 | Graeme Murray Gallery, Edinburgh |
| Serpentine Gallery, London |
| Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge |
| 1976 | Coracle Press, London |
| Homage to Watteau, Graeme Murray Gallery, Edinburgh |
| City Art Gallery, Southampton |
| 1974 | National Maritime Museum, London |
| 1972 | Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh |
| 1971 | Winchester College of Art |
| 1970 | Ceolfrith Bookshop Gallery, Sunderland |
| 1969 | Pittencreiff House, Dunfermline |
| Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh |
| 1968 | Axiom Gallery, London |
| | |
Selected Group Exhibitions |
| 2008 | Conversations, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, UK |
| 2007 | Ian Hamilton Finlay & Cerith Wyn Evans, Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh |
| 2006 | Tate Triennial, Tate Britain, London |
| Certain Trees: The Constructed Book, Poem and Object 1964-2006, |
| Centre des Livres D’Artistes, Saint-Yrieix-La-Perche |
| Word Power: Concrete Poetry and it’s Influences, Peacock Visual Arts, |
| Aberdeen & the Changing Room, Stirling |
| 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 |
| Edition, Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh |
| 2004 | Art and the Garden, Tate Britain, London |
| Bang, Colgate University, Hamilton, New York |
| 2000 | Encounters, National Gallery, London |
| 1999 | Heads Will Roll, Victoria Miro Gallery, London |
| Musee d’Art Contemporain de Montreal, Montreal |
| La Biennale de Montreal, Centre International d’Art, Montreal |
| 1998 | Les Capteurs de Rives, 1st Biennale de Montreal, commissaire; Claude Gosselin, Montreal |
| 1997 | Material Culture, Hayward Gallery, London |
| Grenzgänger, Deutscher Sparkassen Verlag, Stuttgart |
| The Pleasure of Reading, John Gibson Gallery, New York |
| Wortwechsel, Künstlerwerkstatt Lothringer Str., Munich |
| 1996 | Galerie Stampa, Zurich |
| Schwere-Los-Skulpturen, Landesmuseum Linz |
| Public Works, Peninsula & Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven |
| 1995 | Wege der Birke, Bern |
| Where is Abel, Thy Brother? The Zacheta Gallery, Warsaw |
| Lesen im Buch der Kunst, Library of Baden, Karlsruhe |
| The Green Room, Sydney Gardens, Bath |
| 1994 | Das Jahrhundert des Multiple, Deichtorhallen, Hamburg |
| East of Eden, Museum Schloss Mosigkau, Dessau-Mosigkau |
| Translokation, Haus der Architektur, Graz |
| 1993 | Konfrontation, Museum Moderner Kunst, Vienna |
| Die Sprache der Kunst, Kunsthalle Wien, Frankfurter Kunstverein |
| Skultur statt Denkmal, Galerie Fricke, Düsseldorf |
| Words, Galerie Sfeir-Semler at the Galerie Jergen Becker, Hamburg |
| 1992 | Three British Book Artists', Mandeville Gallery, Univ. of California, San Diego |
| Force Sight, Schloss Presteneck, Neuenstadt, Stein am Kocher |
| Lux Eurpoae, Lux Europae Trust, Edinburgh |
| Verzmelde Werken, Centrum Beeldende Kunst, Groningen |
| 1991 | Rhetorical Image, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York |
| Metropolis, Berlin |
| Night Lines, Centraalmuseum, Utrecht |
| Virtual Realities, Traveling Gallery Exhibition, Scotland |
| 1990 | Von der Natur in der Kunst, Messepalast, Vienna |
| Allegorie, Galerie Sfeir-Demmle, Keil |
| Glasgow’s Great British Art Exhibition, Messepalast Halle E, Vienna |
| Poesis, Graeme Murray Gallery, Edinburgh |
| British Art Now: A Subjective View, Stagaya Art Museum, Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka |
| 1989 | Prospect 89, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt |
| 2000 Jahre-Die Gegenwart der Vergangenheit, Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn |
| Hier Wird Getanzt, XPO Galerie, Hamburg |
| British Sculpture 1960-1988, Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Antwerpt |
| Bühnen-Stücke, Kunstverein, Munich |
| Freiheit-Gleichheit-Brüderlichkeit, Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg, Stampa, Basel |
| 1988 | Starlit Waters: British Sculpture 1968-88, Tate Gallery, Liverpool |
| Saturne en Europe, Musee de la Ville de Strasbourg |
| Triennale Milano |
| Pyramiden, Galerie Jule Kewenig, Frechen/Bachem |
| Art in the Garden, Garden Festival, Glasgow |
| Camouflage, Curt Marcus Gallery, New York |
| Brittannica: 30 Ans de Sculpture, Le Havre |
| Skulpturen Republik, exhibition of the Vienna Festival, Vienna |
| 1987 | Documenta 8, Kassel |
| The Unpainted Landscape, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh |
| Monument to Feuerbach, Summer Exhibition, Antwerp |
| Aphrodite of Terror, Edinburgh International Exhibition |
| 1986 | L’Art et le Sacre Aujourd’hui, Cistercian Abbey, L’Epau |
| Between Object and Image, Madrid and Barcelona |
| 1985 | Promenades, Parc Lullin, Geneva |
| British Council Exhibition, Sydney, Australia |
| 1984 | Merian Park, Basel |
| 1983 | Hayward Gallery, London |
| 1977 | Exhibition of Contemporary Sculpture, Battersea Park, London |
| | |
Selected Permanent Installations |
| 2004 | St. Mary Axe, City of London |
| Fleur de l’Air, private garden in Provence |
| 2001 | Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, The Dean Gallery, Edinburgh |
| 2000 | Wallraff-Richartz Museum, Cologne |
| Schoenthal Monestry, Langenbruck |
| Patumbah Park, Zurich |
| Hamilton, Scotland |
| 1999 | Bundesarbeitsgericht, Erfurt |
| Private Garden, Zürich, Lauffen, Basel |
| BUGA, Magdeberg |
| Barcelona |
| Park am Goetheturm im GrünGürtel, Frankfurt |
| Montreal |
| Dienstgebäude für den Generalbundesanwalt beim Bundesgerichtshof, Karlsruhe |
| Ponte Vedra |
| Shell Research, Thornton Research Centre, Chester |
| 1998 | Serpentine Gallery, London |
| The Ark, London |
| Den Haag |
| 1997 | Hunter Square, Edinburgh |
| Kunsthalle, Hamburg |
| 1996 | Botanic Garden, University of Durham |
| 1995 | Landesgartenschau, Grevenbroich |
| 1994 | The Gyle, Shopping Center, Edinburgh |
| Schroder Munchmeyer Hengst & Co Bank, Frankfurt/Main |
| Laumeier Sculpture Park, St Louis |
| 1993 | Beelden op de Berg, Belmonte Arboretum, Wageningen |
| 1992 | Additions to Shenstone's Leasowes, Dudley |
| Floiadepark, Zoetermeer |
| 1991 | Stockwood Park, Borough of Luton |
| Library of Baden, Karlsruhe |
| Overbeck-Gesellschaft, Lübeck |
| 1990 | Private Library of the German Architect Ungers, Cologne |
| 12th & K Office Tower, Sacramento |
| Railway Bridge, Glasgow |
| 1989 | Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston |
| Forest of Dean, Bristol |
| 1988 | Museum of Modern Art, Strasbourg |
| 1987 | Skulptur Projekt, Münster |
| Campus of the University of California, San Diego |
| Furka Pass, Switzerland |
| West Princess Street Gardens, Edinburgh |
| 1986 | Domaine de Kerguehenned, Brittany |
| Schweizer Garten, Vienna |
| Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven |
| 1984 | Garden of Giuliano Gori, Celle |
| 1980 | Kroller-Muller Sculpture Garden, Otterlo |
| 1979 | British Embassy, Bonn |
| 1978 | Bell’s Garden, Perth |
| 1976 | University of Liege, Liege |
| 1975 | Garden of the Max Planck Institut, Stuttgart |
| Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh |
| | |
Publications |
| | |
Monographs and Catalogues |
| 2006 | Remembrance, Wild Hawthorne Press. |
| 2004 | Ian Hamilton Finlay and Pia Maria Simig, Fleur de l’Air-A Garden in Provence, Wild Hawthorne Press. |
| Art of the Garden: The Garden in British Art 1800 to the Present Day, Tate Publishing. |
| 2003 | Jessie Sheeler, Little Sparta-The Garden of Ian Hamilton Finlay, photographs by Andrew Lawson, Frances Lincoln Ltd. |
| 2002 | Tom Lubbock and Susen Daniel McElroy, Ian Hamilton Finlay: Maritime Works, Tate St Ives, Cornwall. |
| 2000 | Ian Hamilton Finlay: Concrete Poetry, Galeria Bielska BWA, Bielsko-Biala. |
| 1998 | Ian Hamilton Finlay, A Proposal for the Grounds of the Serpentine Gallery, Little Sparta, Wild Hawthorne Press. |
| 1997 | Rosemarie Pahlke and Pia Simig Eds., Ian Hamilton Finlay: Prints 1963-1997, Museum am Ostwall Dortmund, Statsgalerij Heerlen and Galerie Stadtpark Krems, Cantz Verlag. |
| 1995 | Alec Finlay Ed., Wood Notes Wild-Essays on the Poetry and Art of Ian Hamilton Finlay, Paragon, Edinburgh. |
| John Dixon Hunt, Harry Gilonis and Pia Simig Eds., Ian Hamilton Finlay: Works in Europe:1972-1995, Ostfildern, Cantz Verlag. |
| 1994 | A Posse of Two: Lorine Niedecker and Ian Hamilton Finlay, Chapman. |
| 1993 | Jerome J. McGann, The Visible Language of Modernism, Black Riders Princeton, Princeton University Press. |
| 1992 | Yves Abrioux, Ian Hamilton Finlay: A Visual Primer, Introduction and commentaries by Stephen Bann, MIT Press, Cambridge. |
| Graeme Murray Ed., POIESIS: Aspects of Contemporary Poetic Activity, The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh. |
| 1991 | Edwin Morgan and Graeme Murray Eds., Evening Will Come They Will Sew the Blue Sail, Ian Hamilton Finlay & the Wild Hawthorne Press 1958-1991, The Fruitmarket Galley, Edinburgh. |
| Ian Hamilton Finlay: Poet of the Woodland, Krem Galerie, Stadtpark und Autoren. |
| Lawrence S., Ezra Pound and the Monument of Culture: Text, History and the Malatesta Cantos, University of Chicago Press, Chicago. |
| Friedrich Schlegel, Philosophical Fragments, Trans. Peter Firchow, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis. |
| 1989 | Cary Nelson, Repression and Recovery: Modern American Poetry and the Politics of Cultural Memory 1910-1945, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison. |
| 1988 | Philip Lacoue-Labarthe and Jean-Luc Nancy, The Theory of Literature in German Romanticism, Trans. By Philip Barnard and Cheryl Lester, State University of New York Press, Albany. |
| 1987 | Ian Hamilton Finlay, Inter Artes at Naturam, ARC, Paris. |
| 1984 | Alan Bold Ed., Hugh MacDiarmid, Letters, University of Georgia Press, Athens. |
| 1982 | Jean Starobinski, 1789 The Emblems of Reason, Translation by Barbara Bray, University of Virginia Press, Charlottesville. |
| 1981 | Thomas Princeton, Romanticism and the Forms of Ruin: Wordsworth, Coleridge and Modalities of Fragmentation, Princeton University Press, Princeton. |
| 1980 | Archilochus, Sappho, Alkman: Three Lyric Poets of the Seventh Century. |
| B.C., Trans by Guy Davenport, University of California Press, Berkeley. |
| 1971 | Hugh Kenner, The Pound Era, University of California Press, Berkeley. |
| 1967 | Robert Rosenblum, Transformations in Late Eighteenth Century Art, Princeton University Press, Princeton. |
