العربية
中国
Français
Deutsch
Ελληνική
हिन्दी
Italiano
日本語
Português
Русский
EspañolIAN HAMILTON FINLAY
'Ian Hamilton Finlay', CBE, (28 October, 1925 - 27 March, 2006) was a Scottish poet, writer, artist and gardener.
| Contents |
| Biography |
| Collaborators |
| Printed works |
| Sculptures and gardens |
| Books by Finlay |
| Bibliography |
| Notes |
| References |
| External links |
Biography
Finlay was born in Nassau, Bahamas of Scottish parents. He was educated in Scotland. At the age of 13, with the outbreak of World War II, he was evacuated to the Orkney Islands. In 1942 he joined the British Army.
At the end of the war, Finlay worked as a shepherd, before beginning to write short stories and poems. He published books including ''The Sea Bed and Other Stories'' (1958) and ''The Dancers Inherit the Party'' (1960) (which was included in its entirety in a ''New Directions'' annual a few years later), and some of his work was broadcast by the BBC.
In 1963, Finlay published ''Rapel'', his first collection of concrete poetry (poetry in which the layout and typography 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. Eventually he began to inscribe his poems into stone, incorporating these sculptures into the natural environment.
This kind of environmental poetry features in his garden Little Sparta in the Pentland Hills near Edinburgh, where he lived. The five-acre garden also includes more conventional sculptures and temple-like buildings as well as plants.
In December 2004 in a poll conducted by Scotland on Sunday, a panel of fifty artists, gallery directors and arts professionals voted Little Sparta to be the most important work of Scottish art.[1] Second and third were the Glasgow School of Art by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and ''The Skating Minister''. Sir Roy Strong has said of Little Sparta that it is "the only really original garden made in this country since 1945". Penniless poet's vision that bloomed Fiachra Gibbons
The Little Sparta Trust plans to preserve the garden for the nation by raising enough to pay for an ongoing maintenance fund. Ian Appleton, Stephen Bann, Stephen Blackmore, Susan Daniel-McElroy, Patrick Eyres, Richard Ingleby, Ian Kennedy, Magnus Linklater, Victoria Miro, Nicholas Serota, Jessie Sheeler, Pia Simig and Ann Uppington are trustees.
His work is notable for a number of recurring themes: a penchant for classical writers (especially Virgil); a concern with fishing and the sea; an interest in the French Revolution; and a continual revisiting of World War II. His work can be austere, but it is also at times witty, or even darkly whimsical. His use of Nazi imagery led an accusation of neo-Nazi sympathies, and to a court case, which Finlay won. He also came into conflict Strathclyde Regional Council over his liability for rates on a byre in his garden, which the council insisted was being used as commercial premisses. Finlay insisted that it was a garden temple.[2]
One of the few gardens outside Scotland to permanently display his work is the ''Improvement Garden'' in Stockwood Park, Luton.
Finlay was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1985. He was awarded honorary doctorates from Aberdeen University in 1987, Heriot-Watt University in 1993 and the University of Glasgow in 2001, and an honorary and/or visiting professorship from the University of Dundee in 1999. The French Communist Party presented him with a bust of Saint-Just in 1991. He received the Scottish Horticultural Medal from the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society in 2002, and the Scottish Arts Council Creative Scotland Award in 2003. Awarded in the Queen's New Year's Honours list in 2002, Finlay was a CBE.
Collaborators
Finlay's designs were most often built by others.[4] A partial list of collaborators follows, from two sources.
Printed works
Tate Collection
Printed works
This article provided by Wikipedia. To edit the contents of this article, click here for original source.
psst.. try this: add to faves
