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 Honours
Awarded Scottish Horticultural Medal by the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society
Scottish Arts Council Creative Scotland Award
2006
Died in Lanark, Scotland
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2014
Terra Mare, Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut
Ian Hamilton Finlay: Arcadian Revolutionary and Avant-Gardener, DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, MA
2013
Ian Hamilton Finlay: Ring of Waves, David Nolan Galley, New York
Artist Rooms: Ian Hamilton Finlay, Nature Over Again After Poussin 1979-1980, the Park Gallery, Falkirk
Ian Hamilton Finlay: Printed Works, Hiram Butler Gallery, Texas
Ian Hamilton Finlay, Tate Britain, London
2012
Ian Hamilton Finlay - Twilight Remembers, Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh
2011
Definitions, Victoria Miro Gallery, London
Galleria Massimo Minini, Brescia, Italy
2009
Camouflage, David Nolan Gallery, New York
2008
(Neo)Classicism – A Noble Arrow, Nolan Judin Berlin
Druckgrafik, Kusthalle Bremen
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
Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland
2001
Souvenirs & Postcards by Ian Hamilton Finlay, The Scottish National Gallery of Art, Edinburgh
Stampa, Basel, Switzerland
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, the Netherlands
Galerie Stadtpark, Krems, Austria
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, Switzerland
Works: Pure and Political, Deichtorhalle, Hamburg
70th Birthday Show, Victoria Miro Gallery, London
Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
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, Missouri
1993
CAYC, Buenos Aires
Tate Gallery, London
Wildwachsende Blumen, Lenbachhaus, Munich, Germany
The Sonnet is a Sewing Machine for the Monositch, Crawford Arts Centre, St. Andrews, Scotland
12/1794, Galerie Busche, Berlin
Inscriptions, Massimo Minini Gallery, Brescia, Italy
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 Ausserungen, Kunstverein Frankfurt, Frankfurt
Gallery Stadtpark, Krems
Tate Gallery, Liverpool
Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania
Gulfs and Wars, Kunstverein Friedrichshafen
Malerisamling Lillehammer, Norway
Pastorales, Overbeck-Gesellschaft, Lubeck
Definitions, Galerie Sfeir-Semler, Kiel
The Poor Fisherman, Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh
Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut
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
Stadtische Galerie am Markt, Schwabisch-Hall
Paperworks, Galerie Hubert Winter, Vienna
Works, Butler Gallery, Kilkenny Castle, Ireland
Bicentenary Celebrations, Kellie Lodging Gallery, Pittenween, Scotland
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
2011
Printed in Norfolk: Coracle Publications 1989-2012, The Gallery at Norwich University, Norwich, England
The Artists’ Postcard Show, Spike Island, Bristol, England
Néon, Who’s afraid of red, yellow and blue?, La Maison Rouge, Paris, France
Grow Together: Concrete Poetry in Brazil and Scotland, Highland Institute for Contemporary Art, Dalcrombie, Inverness-shire, Scotland
Faster and Slower Lines, Reykjavík Art Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland
Art + Architecture 11, Boutwell Draper Gallery, Sydney, Australia
2010
one blue moment, Galerie Schütte, Essen, Germany
The Ground Around: idylls, earthworks & thunderbolts, Vilma Gold, London, U.K.
Umso mehr…, Kunsthalle Göppingen, Germany
Bense und die Künste, Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe
2009
Art With Paper, Boutwell Draper Gallery, Sydney
PROJECTS 2, Stampa, Basel
British Council Collection: The Third Dimension, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London
Poor. Old. Tired. Horse., Institute of Contemporary Arts London
Nous tournons en rond dans la nuit, Musée Départemental d'Art Contemporain de Rochechouart, France
2008
xviii Biennale Internazionale di Scultura, Accademia di Belle Arti di Carrara, Italy
Here We Dance, Tate Modern, London
Martian Museum of Terrestrial Art, Barbican, London
Sol LeWitt x2, Austin Museum of Art, Austin, Texas
Arbeiten auf Papier — von Arakawa bis Zimmer — Smlg. Kulak, Otto Galerie, Munich
Conversations, Kettle's Yard, Cambridge, United Kingdom
2007
Ian Hamilton Finlay & Cerith Wyn Evans, Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh
2006
Tate Triennial, Tate Britain, London, United Kingdom
Certain Trees: The Constructed Book, Poem and Object 1964-2006, Centre des Livres D'Artistes, Saint-Yrieix-La-Perche, France
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
Grenzganger, Deutscher Sparkassen Verlag, Stuttgart
The Pleasure of Reading, John Gibson Gallery, New York
Wortwechsel, Kunstlerwerkstatt Lothringer Str., Munich
1996
Galerie Stampa, Zürich
Schwere-Los-Skulpturen, Landesmuseum Linz
Public Works, Peninsula & Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven
1995
Wege der Birke, Bern, Suisse
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, Wien
Die Sprache der Kunst, Kunsthalle Wien, Frankfurter Kunstverein
Skultur statt Denkmal, Galerie Fricke, Dusseldorf
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, Netherlands
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, Japan
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, Antwerpen
Buhnen Stucke, Kunstverein, Munchen
Freiheit-Gleichheit n Bruderlichkeit, Germanisches Nationalmuseuem, Nurnberg 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
Schonthal Monestry, Switzerland
Patumbah Park, Switzerland
Hamilton, Scotland
1999
Bundesarbeitsgericht, Erfurt, Germany
Private Garden, Zurich, Lauffen, Basel
BUGA, Magdeberg, Germany
Barcelona, Spain
Park am Goetheturm im GruGurtel, Frankfurt, Germany
Montreal, Canada
Dienstgebaude fur den Generalbundesanwalt beim
Bundesgerichtshof, Karlsruhe, Germany
Ponte Vedra, Spain
Shell Research, Thorton Research Centre, England
1998
Serpentine Gallery, London
The Ark, London
Den Haag, Netherlands
1997
Hunter Square, Edinburgh
Kunsthalle, Hambourg
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, Netherlands
1992
Additions to Shenstone's Leasowes, Dudley
Floiadepark, Zoetermeer, Netherlands
1991
Stockwood Park, Borough of Luton
Library of Baden, Karlsruhe
Overbeck-Gesellschaft, Lubeck
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, Munster
Campus of the University of California, San Diego
Furka Pass, Switzerland
West Princess Street Gardens, Edinburgh
1986
Domaine de Kerguehenned, Brittany
Schwiezergarten, 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, Scotland
1976
University of Liege, Liege
1975
Garden of the Max Planck Institut, Stuttgart
Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
2006
Remembrance, Wild Hawthorne Press
2004
Finlay, Ian Hamilton and Pia Maria Siming, 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
Sheeler, Jessie, Little Sparta-The Garden of Ian Hamilton Finlay, 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
Finlay, Ian Hamilton, A Proposal for the Grounds of the Serpentine Gallery, Little Sparta, Wild Hawthorne Press
1997
Pahlke, Rosemarie and Pia Simig Eds, Ian Hamilton Finlay: Prints 1963-1997, Museum am Ostwall Dortmund, Statsgalerij Heerlen and Galerie Stadpark Kremas, Cantz Verlag
1995
Finlay, Alec Ed., Wood Notes Wild-Essays on the Poetry and Art of Ian Hamilton Finlay, Paragon, Edinburgh
Hunt, John Dixon, 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
McGann, Jerome J., The Visible Language of Modernism, Black Riders Princeton, Princeton University Press
1992
Abrioux, Yves. Ian Hamilton Finlay: A Visual Primer, Introduction and commentaries by Stephen Bann, MIT Press, Cambridge
Murray, Graeme Ed., POIESIS: Aspects of Contemporary Poetic Activity, The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh
1991
Morgan, Edwin 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
Ezra Pound and the Monument of Culture: Text, History and the Malatesta Cantos, Lawrence S., University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Schlegel, Fredrich, Philosophical Fragments, Trans. Peter Firchow, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis
1989
Nelson, Cary, Repression and Recovery:Modern American Poetry and the Politics of Cultural Memory 1910-1945, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison
1988
Lacoue-Labarthe, Philip 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
Finlay, Ian Hamilton, Inter Artes at Naturam, ARC, Paris
1984
MacDiarmid, Hugh, Letters, Alan Bold Ed, University of Georgia Press, Athens
1982
Starobinski, Jean, 1789 The Emblems of Reason, Translation by Barbara Bray, University of Virginia Press, Charlottesville
1981
Princeton, Thomas, 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
Kenner, Hugh. The Pound Era, University of California Press, Berkeley
1967
Rosenblum, Robert, Transformations in Late Eighteenth Century Art, Princeton University Press, Princeton