Finlay was born inNassau, Bahamas, to James Hamilton Finlay and his wife, Annie Pettigrew, both of Scots descent.
He was educated atDollar Academy in Clackmannanshire and later atGlasgow School of Art. At the age of 13, with the outbreak of theSecond World War, he wasevacuated to family in the countryside (firstly to Gartmore and then to Kirkudbright). In 1942, he joined theBritish Army.[5] Finlay was married twice and had two children,Alec and Ailie. Throughout his life, he suffered severely fromagoraphobia.[6] He died in Edinburgh in 2006.[7] He is buried alone inAbercorn Churchyard inWest Lothian, Scotland. The grave lies in the extreme south-east corner of the churchyard. The gravestone refers to his parents and sister.
At the end of the war, Finlay worked as ashepherd, before beginning to write short stories and poems, while living onRousay, in Orkney. He published his first book,The Sea Bed and Other Stories, in 1958, with some of his plays broadcast on theBBC, and some stories featured inThe Glasgow Herald.[5]
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.[8]Dancers was included in its entirety in aNew Directions annual a few years later.
In 1963, Finlay publishedRapel, his first collection ofconcrete poetry (poetry in which the layout andtypography 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 magazinePoor. Old. Tired. Horse.[9]
Finlay became notable as a poet, when reducing themonostich form to one word[10] with hisconcrete poems in the 1960s.[11] Repetition, imitation and tradition lay at the heart of Hamilton's poetry,[12] and exploring "the juxtaposition of apparently opposite ideas".[13]
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 gardenLittle Sparta that he and Sue Finlay created together in thePentland Hills nearEdinburgh, 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."[14] The five-acre garden also includes more conventional sculptures and two garden temples.
The Little Sparta Trust[18] plans to preserve Little Sparta for the nation by raising enough to pay for an ongoing maintenance fund. Richard Ingleby,[19] Ian Kennedy,Magnus Linklater, and Ann Uppington[20] are trustees. Former trustees include Ian Appleton,Stephen Bann, Stephen Blackmore,[21] Patrick Eyres,[22] John Leighton,Duncan Macmillan,Victoria Miro, Paul Nesbitt and Jessie Sheeler.
Hamilton Finlay and George Oliver's 1973Arcadiascreenprint usescamouflage inmodern art to contrast leafy peace and military hardware. He continually revisited war themes and the concept of theUtopianArcadia in his work.[23]
Finlay's work is notable for a number of recurring themes: a penchant for classical writers (especiallyVirgil); a concern with fishing and the sea; an interest in theFrench Revolution; and a continual revisiting ofWorld War II and thememento moriLatin phraseEt in Arcadia ego. His 1973 screenprint of a tank camouflaged in a leaf pattern,Arcadia, referring to theUtopianArcadia of poetry and art (another recurring theme), is described by theTate as drawing "an ironic parallel between this idea of a natural paradise and the camouflage patterns on a tank".[23] In the 1982 exhibitionThe 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.[24]
Finlay's use of Nazi imagery led to an accusation of neo-Nazi sympathies andantisemitism. Finlay sued a Paris magazine which had made such accusations, and was awarded nominal damages of onefranc. The stress of this situation brought about the separation between Finlay and his wife Sue.[25]
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.[26]
One of the few gardens outsideScotland to permanently display his work is theImprovement Garden inStockwood Discovery Centre,Luton, created in collaboration with Sue Finlay, Gary Hincks and Nicholas Sloan.
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)[32] and the Victoria Miro Gallery (London) in the U.K.[33]
Finlay's designs were most often built by others.[5] Finlay respected the expertise of sandblasters, engravers and printers he worked with,[34] having approximately one hundred collaborators includingPatrick Caulfield,Richard Demarco,Malcolm Fraser,Christopher Hall,Margot Sandeman. He also worked with a host of lettering artists including Michael Harvey and Nicholas Sloan.[35][36]
Five Columns for the Kröller-Müller, second title:A Fifth Column for the Kröller-Müller, third title:Corot – Saint-Just, tree-column bases namedLYCURGUS,ROUSSEAU,ROBESPIERRE,MICHELET,COROT,Otterlo, the Netherlands,Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller, 1982
Finlay, Ian Hamilton (September–October 2004). Ken Cockburn; Lilias Fraser (eds.).The Dancers Inherit the Party and Glasgow Beasts, An' a Burd. Polygon in association with Scottish Poetry Library.ISBN1-904598-13-7. Original: 1960 Migrant Press, 1961 Wild Hawthorn Press, 1961 Wild Flounder Press, 1969 Fulcrum Press, 1995 or 1996 or 1997 PolygonISBN0-7486-6207-3[41][42]
Finlay, Ian Hamilton (September 2004). Ken Cockburn; Lilias Fraser (eds.).The Dancers Inherit the Party and Glasgow Beasts, An' a Burd. Polygon in association with Scottish Poetry Library.ISBN1-904598-13-7. Original: 1960 Migrant Press, 1961 Wild Hawthorn Press, 1961 Wild Flounder Press, 1969 Fulcrum Press, 1995 or 1996 or 1997 PolygonISBN0-7486-6207-3
Hendry, Joy; Alec Finlay (February 1997).Wood Notes Wild: Essays on the Poetry and Art of Ian Hamilton Finlay. Polygon.ISBN0-7486-6185-9. Original: 1994 Chapman PublishingISBN0-906772-61-3
Finlay, Ian Hamilton (1995). Zdenek Felix; Pia Simig (eds.).Works in Europe 1972–1995 Werke in Europa. Werner Hannappel (photographer). Cantz Verlag.ISBN3-89322-749-0.
Weilacher, Udo (September 1999)."Poetry in Nature Unredeemed – Ian Hamilton Finlay" (interview) in Between Landscape Architecture and Land Art. John Dixon Hunt (Foreword). Birkhauser.ISBN3-7643-6119-0.
^Perloff, Marjorie Review 'Dreams of Weeds' T L S London April 29, 2005.
^Matsumoto, Lila 'Imitation, Reflection, Tradition: Some Reflections on the Poetry of Ian Hamilton Finlay' Forum Issue 15, University of Edinburgh Autumn 2012
^Beauty and Revolution : The Poetry and Art of Ian Hamilton Finlay, Kettle's Yard Exhibition Catalogue (Teachers Resource) Cambridge, 2014.
^Sheeler, Jessie (2015).Little Sparta: A Guide to the Garden of Ian Hamilton Finlay. Edinburgh: Birlinn Ltd. p. 83.
^"Ian Hamilton Finlay". Ingleby Gallery. Retrieved23 March 2019.Ingleby Gallery work closely with Finlay's Estate and holds a substantial selection from the archive of his Wild Hawthorn Press in stock.
^Exhibition catalogueBeauty and Revolution: The Poetry and Art of Ian Hamililton Finlay, Kettle's Yard, Cambridge, 2014.
^Finlay, Ian Hamilton (2006)."Printed works". Wild Hawthorn Press. Retrieved10 November 2006.
^Finlay, Ian Hamilton (2006)."Tate Collection". Retrieved10 November 2006.
^Finlay, Ian Hamilton (1995). Zdenek Felix; Pia Simig (eds.).Works in Europe 1972–1995 Werke in Europa. Werner Hannappel (photographer). Cantz Verlag.ISBN3-89322-749-0.
