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Finlay (Ian Hamilton) Papers
890144
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Contributing Institution:
Special Collections
Title: Ian Hamilton Finlay papers
Creator:
Cutts, Simon, 1944-
Creator:
Duncan, Ronnie
Creator:
Finlay, Ian Hamilton
Creator:
Gardner, Ian
Creator:
Murray, Graeme
Creator:
Stanford, Derek
Creator:
Torok, Karl
Identifier/Call Number: 890144
Physical Description:
10 Linear Feet
Date (inclusive): 1948-1992
Abstract: This collection details the career and work of Scottish concrete poet/artist, Ian Hamilton Finlay. It includes manuscripts,
correspondence, printed materials, garden designs, photographs, project files, clippings, catalogs, and other materials related
to his work, his family, colleagues, friends, and the controversies that surrounded him. Materials collected by Simon Cutts,
publisher of the Coracle Press.
Physical Location: Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the
catalog record for this collection. Click here for the
access policy .
Language of Material:
English
.
Scope and Content of Collection
The Ian Hamilton Finlay archive provides a record, through letters, manuscripts and printed pieces, of the work of the Scottish
concrete poet, garden designer and controversialist.
The collection primarily contains printed works by Finlay: mail art cards, pamphlets, posters and broadsides, and small books,
most printed at his Wild Hawthorn Press, 1958-1989, and correspondence, 1948-1993, with friends, collectors, and fellow artists
such as Derek Stanford (1948-1952), Simon Cutts (1968-77), Ronnie Duncan (1978-1986), Graeme Murray (1972-1988), Karl Torok
(1972-1977). Manuscripts, maquettes, dummies and models for projects, 1963-1989, with photographs and transparencies of early
and abandoned works and works in progress, 1965-1989, document the creation of a range of his projects, mostly printed works.
Reviews and press clippings of Finlay's "polemical affairs, wars and battles," along with printed works he created while fighting
his battles, illustrate the dispute over the publication by the Fulcrum Press of his "The Dancers Inherit the Party," his
dispute with the local authorities over the designation of his "garden temple" as an art gallery, and the controversy accompanying
Finlay's commission, subsequently revoked, to design a bicentennial garden at Versailles, 1969-1989. Also included in the
archive are catalogues and invitations for exhibitions, contributions by Finlay to magazines, books and exhibition catalogues,
and critical writings by others on Finlay.
The papers are organized in 7 series:
Series I: Correspondence 1948-1992;
Series II: Manuscripts and mock-ups;
Series III: Project Files of Art Work and Ensuing Controversies;
Series IV: Finlay's Printed Cards;
Series V: Photographs, 1967-1989;
Series VI: Published Materials: by and about Finlay;
Series VII: Oversize printed pieces, by Finlay
Ian Hamilton Finlay is a Scottish artist best known for his concrete poetry, his gardens which incorporate poetry and sculpture,
and his penchant for controversy. He was born in 1925 in the Bahamas. His family returned to Scotland when he was a child
and he was, briefly, educated there. He left school at 13, and served in the army (RASC) beginning in 1942. After WWII, Finlay
began to write short stories and poetry. His first publication was
The Sea-Bed and Other Stories (1958); his first book of poems,
Dancers Inherit the Party, was published in 1960 (republished by the Fulcrum Press in 1969).
In 1961 Finlay founded the Wild Hawthorne Press (with Jessie McGuffie). The press published contemporary artists, although
it increasingly concentrated on the work of Finlay, in innovative and kinetic forms. In 1962 Finlay started the periodical,
Poor. Old. Tired. Horse. Edited by Finlay, the title comprised 25 issues when it ended in 1968.
It was during the early 1960s that Finlay turned from rhymed poetry to concrete poetry. 1963 marked the publication of his
first collection of concrete poems,
Rapel, and his first poem/card,
Standing Poem I. He participated in the First International Exhibition of Concrete and Kinetic Poetry, held in Cambridge in 1964, and the
ICA's exhibit,
Between Poetry and Painting, in 1965.
In 1966 Ian and Sue Finlay settled at Stonypath (in the southern uplands of Scotland) and began building their famous garden.
They turned one of the buildings on their ca. 4 acre site into a gallery. This subsequently became the Garden Temple, and
the source of Finlay's battles with the Strathclyde Region Council when they refused to give him a rate exemption for a religious
building. Finlay's protracted skirmishes with the Scottish Arts Council began in 1978 and became known as the Little Spartan
War. (Stonypath was renamed Little Sparta.) This "war" included several "battles" between the SAC and the group of Finlay
supporters known as the Saint-Just Vigilantes. These and other battles have been memorialized in Finlay's printed and sculptural
works. Finlay was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 1985.
Acquired in 1989.
Ian Hamilton Finlay papers 1948-1992, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 890144.
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa890144
Open for use by qualified researchers.
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Subjects and Indexing Terms
Photographic prints
Poetry -- Periodicals
Artists books -- Scotland
Gardens -- Design
Concrete poetry, English
Posters
Mail art
Transparencies
Cutts, Simon, 1944-
Finlay, Ian Hamilton