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Ian Hamilton Finlay

Ian Hamilton Finlay

  • About
  • Biography
  • News
  • Books
  • Gallery Exhibitions
  • About
    View works. Ian Hamilton Finlay, Terror and Virtue, c. 1985
    Terror and Virtue, c. 1985
    View works

    A philosopher, sculptor and poet, Ian Hamilton Finlay (1925–2006) reinvigorated the classical tradition in a body of work that encompasses a variety of creative forms to celebrate the sustaining power of words. His diverse production encompassed a variety of creative forms including prints, poems, books, inscriptions, neons, sculptures, permanent installations and landscape design. The purest kind of conceptual artist, Finlay was sensitive to the formalist concerns (colour, shape, scale, texture, composition) of literary and artistic modernism. For almost forty years, he formed his works using philosophical texts, myths, characters and images from the past to make enigmatic juxtapositions and in so doing new thoughts. Finlay's adept use of syntax and narrative configuration weaved refined distinctions with a lyrical philosophy. His skill lay in his unique ability to break down complex ideas into coherent single words and short phrases, infused with Finlay's characteristic wit and, often, wry humour.  

    In 1961 he founded the Wild Hawthorn Press with Jessie McGuffie and within a few years had established himself internationally as Britain's foremost concrete poet. His publications continue to play an important role in the dissemination of his work as a visual artist. As a sculptor, he worked collaboratively in a wide range of materials, having his concepts executed as stone-carvings, as constructed objects and neon lighting. From the mid-1960s Finlay lived and worked at Stonypath, south-west of Edinburgh, where he transformed the surrounding rural acres into a unique garden and life's work: Little Sparta. Ian Hamilton Finlay died 27 March 2006, aged 80.

    Download CV (PDF, opens in a new tab.)
    View artist website
  • Selected Works

    Ian Hamilton Finlay, Now the Names of Twelve, 2007 (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Ian Hamilton Finlay, Corday Lux, 2007 (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Ian Hamilton Finlay, Four Muses, 2006 (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Ian Hamilton Finlay, The Names of the Twelve, 2005-06 (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Ian Hamilton Finlay, Five Finials, 1999 (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Ian Hamilton Finlay, The Dinghy, 1996 (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Ian Hamilton Finlay, Evolution of the Boat, 1995 (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Ian Hamilton Finlay, Republic, 1995 (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Ian Hamilton Finlay, Urn /1794, 1993 (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Ian Hamilton Finlay, A, E, I, O, Blue, 1992 (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Ian Hamilton Finlay, Head of the Dead Marat, 1991 (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Ian Hamilton Finlay, La Révolution est un Bloc, 1990 (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Ian Hamilton Finlay, Four Blades, 1987 (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Ian Hamilton Finlay, Now the Names of Twelve, 2007
  • Biography
    View works. Ian Hamilton Finlay, Terror and Virtue, c. 1985
    Terror and Virtue, c. 1985
    View works

    Born in 1925 in Nassau, Bahamas, Ian Hamilton Finlay was a philosopher, sculptor and poet who reinvigorated the classical tradition in his art. Finlay’s diverse production encompassed a variety of creative forms including prints, poems, books, inscriptions, neons, sculptures, permanent installations and landscape design, all celebrating the sustaining power of words. The purest kind of conceptual artist, Finlay was sensitive to the formalist concerns (colour, shape, scale, texture, composition) of literary and artistic modernism. In 1961 he founded Wild Hawthorn Press with Jessie McGuffie, mainly to introduce contemporary artists to Scotland, and which over the years came to concentrate exclusively on Finlay’s printed works. His lifetime’s work, the garden at Little Sparta, Stonypath, Scotland, begun in 1966, most fully realises the movement of words and language into the world. Ian Hamilton Finlay died 27 March 2006, aged 80.

    Recent solo exhibitions include The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, UK (2025); Hill Art Foundation, New York, USA (2024); City Arts Centre, Edinburgh, UK (2021); St Pauls Cathedral, London, UK (2016) and Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, UK (2016).

    Finlay’s work is in permanent collections including the British Museum, London; Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow; Laumeier Sculpture Park, St Louis, USA; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, Paris; Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh; Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh; Tate, London and Victoria & Albert Museum, London.

    Download CV (PDF, opens in a new tab.)
  • News
    • Ian Hamilton Finlay: Fragments is reviewed in Sculpture Magazine

      Ian Hamilton Finlay: Fragments is reviewed in Sculpture Magazine

      May 12, 2025
      'This much-deserved centenary celebration demonstrates the continued relevance of his questioning work.'
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    • Ian Hamilton Finlay’s Republic is The Week in Art’s Work of the Week

      Ian Hamilton Finlay’s Republic is The Week in Art’s Work of the Week

      May 6, 2025
      For The Art Newspaper’s The Week in Art podcast, Ben Luke spoke to Stephen Bann about this sculptural work, currently on view at the gallery...
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    • Ian Hamilton Finlay’s son Alec Finlay on the centenary of his father's birth in The World of Interiors

      Ian Hamilton Finlay’s son Alec Finlay on the centenary of his father's birth in The World of Interiors

      April 23, 2025
      'He experienced language as a Heraclitan and oracular medium. To him, the poem was an exemplary device that had a gift for revealing the metamorphoses words contain.'
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    • Ian Hamilton Finlay’s Little Sparta featured in the Financial Times

      Ian Hamilton Finlay’s Little Sparta featured in the Financial Times

      April 17, 2025
      'As a whole, Little Sparta is “like a cryptic crossword puzzle. It’s a place that allows you to think.”'
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    • The Observer reviews Ian Hamilton Finlay at the National Galleries of Scotland

      The Observer reviews Ian Hamilton Finlay at the National Galleries of Scotland

      March 23, 2025
      ★★★★ 'His is an art of distillation, juxtaposition, thrift and contemplation... Finlay understood as few other artists the emotional power of letters cutting into form, shape and colour.'
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    • Exhibitions celebrating the centenary of Ian Hamilton Finlay feature in The Times Scotland

      Exhibitions celebrating the centenary of Ian Hamilton Finlay feature in The Times Scotland

      March 1, 2025
      '...Finlay saw himself as a disruptor, someone who challenged the establishment and picked quarrels with it, whenever he felt its power was being misused.'
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    • A centenary display of works by Ian Hamilton Finlay at National Galleries of Scotland

      A centenary display of works by Ian Hamilton Finlay at National Galleries of Scotland

      February 24, 2025
      On view at Modern Two from 8 March–26 May 2025, the display includes sculptures, prints and a room-size installation as well as extensive archival material....
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    • Ian Hamilton Finlay features in Landscape and Imagination: From Gardens to Land Art at Compton Verney

      Ian Hamilton Finlay features in Landscape and Imagination: From Gardens to Land Art at Compton Verney

      March 2, 2024
      The exhibition (21 March–16 June 2024) explores the beauty of nature, reimagined and reinterpreted through the hands of artists and landscape designers who throughout history...
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    • Marine: Ian Hamilton Finlay at City Art Centre, Edinburgh

      Marine: Ian Hamilton Finlay at City Art Centre, Edinburgh

      May 22, 2021
      This major exhibition (22 May–3 October 2021) focuses on the maritime theme in Finlay’s work. It was a central element of his art, and one...
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    • Ian Hamilton Finlay is featured in the UCL exhibition Witnessing Terror: French Revolutionary Prints

      Ian Hamilton Finlay is featured in the UCL exhibition Witnessing Terror: French Revolutionary Prints

      January 6, 2020
      The exhibition (14 January–12 June 2020) showcases UCL Art Museum’s unique holdings of prints related to the French Revolution and draws out the contemporary relevance...
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    • Ian Hamilton Finlay in Machines à Penser at Fondazione Prada, Venice

      Ian Hamilton Finlay in Machines à Penser at Fondazione Prada, Venice

      May 24, 2018
      Curated by Dieter Roelstraete, the exhibition (26 May–25 November 2018) explores the correlation between conditions of exile, escape and retreat and physical or mental places...
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    • An Ian Hamilton Finlay exhibition and talk are a focal point of this year’s Ilkley Literature Festival

      An Ian Hamilton Finlay exhibition and talk are a focal point of this year’s Ilkley Literature Festival

      August 1, 2017
      The exhibition (30 September 2017), Ian Hamilton Finlay’s Visual Poetry, at Manor House, features sculptures and inscriptions, prints, letters and images drawn from the collection...
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    • Hyperallergic writes about Concrete Poetry: Words and Sounds in Graphic Space, featuring Ian Hamilton Finlay

      Hyperallergic writes about Concrete Poetry: Words and Sounds in Graphic Space, featuring Ian Hamilton Finlay

      June 3, 2017
      An Eye for Words: Concrete Poets at the Getty Concrete Poetry focuses on the purists of the movement, particularly the Brazilian Augusto de Campos, the...
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    • Jonny Bruce writes about Ian Hamilton Finlay's Little Sparta, in the Financial Times

      Jonny Bruce writes about Ian Hamilton Finlay's Little Sparta, in the Financial Times

      March 28, 2017
      The artist-gardeners who aim to plant a subversive message. By Jonny Bruce Finlay’s garden at Stonypath, outside Edinburgh, has become a place of pilgrimage for...
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    • Ian Hamilton Finlay in Concrete Poetry: Words and Sounds in Graphic Space at Getty Research Institute

      Ian Hamilton Finlay in Concrete Poetry: Words and Sounds in Graphic Space at Getty Research Institute

      March 23, 2017
      28 March - 30 July 2017 Drawn principally from the Getty Research Institute's collection of prints, artists' books, journals, and manuscripts documenting the international concrete...
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    • Grayson Perry and Ian Hamilton Finlay in Creating the Countryside at Compton Verney

      Grayson Perry and Ian Hamilton Finlay in Creating the Countryside at Compton Verney

      March 9, 2017
      Creating the Countryside: Thomas Gainsborough to Today Sat 18 March 2017 – Sun 18 June 2017 , 11.00am – 5.00pm. Compton Verney’s 2017 season will...
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    • Ian Hamilton Finlay at St Paul's Cathedral

      Ian Hamilton Finlay at St Paul's Cathedral

      December 12, 2016
      New art installation for Advent and Christmastide at St Paul's Cathedral The star in its stable of light A work by Ian Hamilton Finlay has...
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    • Ian Hamilton Finlay: Neoclassicism and Revolution at Pallant House Gallery

      Ian Hamilton Finlay: Neoclassicism and Revolution at Pallant House Gallery

      October 24, 2016
      A display of prints and multiples (22 October 2016 - 19 February 2017) by the Scottish artist and poet Ian Hamilton Finlay (1925-2006), best known...
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    • Just out: Protest publication

      Just out: Protest publication

      September 23, 2016
      This publication accompanies Protest at Victoria Miro, 23 September - 5 November 2016, an exhibition of historical and contemporary works by artists concerned with the...
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    • Power to... the art of protest, as featured in The Observer

      Power to... the art of protest, as featured in The Observer

      September 23, 2016
      Politically engaged art is thriving again, finding new ways to challenge in a complex digital world. We look at the rich history of protest art...
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    • Ian Hamilton Finlay | 1789 1794 reviewed in Artforum

      Ian Hamilton Finlay | 1789 1794 reviewed in Artforum

      October 1, 2015
      Ian Hamilton Finlay. By Richard Taws. The French Revolution was a recurrent theme in Ian Hamilton Finlay’s protean career as a poet, Conceptual artist, sculptor,...
      Read More
  • Books
    • Ian Hamilton Finlay: Fragments

      Ian Hamilton Finlay: Fragments

      2025
      Hardcover
      Publisher: ACC Art Books
      ISBN: 9781788842938
      Dimensions: 29 x 25 cm
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  • Gallery Exhibitions
    • Ian Hamilton Finlay: Fragments

      Ian Hamilton Finlay: Fragments

      30 Apr – 24 May 2025 London Gallery I
      Fragments is both a major new book and eight exhibitions that will take place internationally during May 2025 in Basel, Brescia, Edinburgh, Hamburg, London, New York, Palma de Mallorca and Vienna, curated and edited by Pia Maria Simig.
      Learn More
    • Protest

      Protest

      23 Sep – 5 Nov 2016 London Gallery I
      Doug Aitken, Jules de Balincourt, Vlassis Caniaris, Elmgreen & Dragset, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Christian Holstad, Isaac Julien, Yayoi Kusama, Wangechi Mutu, Alice Neel, Chris Ofili, Richard Prince, Sarah Sze, Wolfgang Tillmans, Rirkrit Tiravanija and Kara Walker.
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    • Ian Hamilton Finlay: 1789 1794

      Ian Hamilton Finlay: 1789 1794

      10 Jun – 31 Jul 2015 London Gallery I
      An exhibition of the work of Ian Hamilton Finlay (1925-2006) marking the 90th anniversary of the artist's birth. A philosopher, sculptor, poet and gardener, Finlay drew on and reinvigorated the...
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    • Ian Hamilton Finlay: Definitions

      Ian Hamilton Finlay: Definitions

      5 May – 1 Jun 2011 London Gallery I
      Victoria Miro Gallery is delighted to present a unique juxtaposition of Ian Hamilton Finlay's sculpture and a series of text works, termed Definitions . These Definitions present Finlay's own interpretations...
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    • Ian Hamilton Finlay: The Sonnet is a Sewing-Machine for the Monostich

      Ian Hamilton Finlay: The Sonnet is a Sewing-Machine for the Monostich

      30 Mar – 12 May 2007 London Gallery I
      The Sonnet is a Sewing-Machine for the Monostich is the largest ever presentation of Finlay's rarely seen neon works, which date back to the early seventies and run parallel to...
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    • Ian Hamilton Finlay: Idylls and Interventions

      Ian Hamilton Finlay: Idylls and Interventions

      27 Jun – 2 Aug 2003 London Gallery I
      Idylls and Interventions brings together a number of Finlay's seminal series of prints along with a major new work and recent sculptures. The exhibition is conceived by Ian Hamilton Finlay...
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    • Raw

      Raw

      7 May – 30 Jun 2000 London Gallery I
      Yayoi Kusama. Francesca Woodman, Robin Lowe, Adriana Varejão, Isaac Julien, Doug Aitken, Abigail Lane, Hadrian Pigott, Brad Lochore, Cecily Brown, Chris Ofili, Andreas Gursky, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Inez van Lamsweerde,...
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    • Heads Will Roll

      14 Sep – 9 Oct 1998 Victoria Miro Cork Street
      Ian Hamilton Finlay, Robin Lowe, Dawn Mellor, Lars Nilson, Chris Ofili, Keir Smith
    • Ian Hamilton Finlay

      19 May – 19 Jun 1998 Victoria Miro Cork Street
      This exhibition of benches by Ian Hamilton Finlay coincides with the inauguration of a series of permanently placed sculptures – eight benches, a tree plaque and a large circular inscription of the names of trees found in Kensington Gardens – at the Serpentine Gallery in London.
    • Ian Hamilton Finlay

      31 Oct – 2 Dec 1995 Victoria Miro Cork Street
    • Temples

      5 – 28 Jul 1995 Victoria Miro Cork Street
      Juren Albrecht, Bernd & Hiller Becher, Thomas Demand, Andreas Gursky, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Alex Hartley, Keir Smith, Stephen Willats
    • Ian Hamilton Finlay and Pia Maria Simig

      29 Jun – 29 Jul 1994 Victoria Miro Cork Street
    • Ian Hamilton Finlay, with Annet Stirling – 10 Maquettes for Neo-Classical Structures

      14 Feb – 3 Apr 1992 Victoria Miro Cork Street
      Ian Hamilton Finlay with Annet Stirling - 10 Maquettes for Neo-Classical Structures.
    • Ian Hamilton Finlay: A Wartime Garden

      17 Oct – 21 Dec 1991 Victoria Miro Cork Street
    • Ian Hamilton Finlay: Idylls

      15 May – 30 Jun 1990 Victoria Miro Cork Street
    • Ian Hamilton Finlay: Works 1966–1986

      14 Jul – 29 Aug 1987 Victoria Miro Cork Street
    • Ian Hamilton Finlay: Marat Assassiné Vitruvius/Augustus-Vitruvius/Robespierre Ideological Accessories

      29 May – 5 Jul 1986 Victoria Miro Cork Street

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info@victoria-miro.com

 

 

Venice

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30124 Venice, Italy

 

+39 041 523 3799
info@victoria-miro.com

 

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