Ian Hamilton Finlay, IDYLLS END IN THUNDERSTORMS 1986. ARTIST ROOMS Tate and National Galleries of Scotland. © Estate of Ian Hamilton Finlay.
These works are both poems and sculptures. The artist gives words material forms that contribute to their meaning
Scottish artist Ian Hamilton Finlay created the poem-objects in this room between the 1960s and 1990s. They focus on maritime themes like boats, fishing and seafaring. The sea was a recurring source of inspiration for Finlay. He was born in The Bahamas and lived for a brief but formative time on Rousay, one of the Scottish Orkney Islands. Even when he moved to the countryside near Edinburgh he was never far from a body of water - such as the ponds in his celebrated garden, Little Sparta, in Dunsyre.
Finlay began his career publishing plays, short stories and poems in the mid-1950s. His early works were important contributions to the development of concrete poetry, a form of visual poetry where the arrangement of words and letters is as significant as their meaning. Finlay published his first collection of concrete poems in 1963, and at the end of the 1960s he began making sculptures. The works on display here illustrate these two practices. They generate poetic associations by juxtaposing words, images and materials.
Finlay often collaborated with other artists and craftspeople, who he always credited in his publications and exhibitions. In 1961, he founded the Wild Hawthorn Press. This publishing company produced versions of many of Finlay’s artworks across a range of mediums. Included here are a series of screenprinted ceramic tiles, suggesting ways to experience visual poetry in a domestic environment. The use of tiles in kitchen and bathroom ‘wet rooms’ also playfully chimes with their maritime subject matter.
Ian Hamilton Finlay, Plaint of the Barge Sails 1975–6
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artworks in ARTIST ROOMS: Ian Hamilton Finlay
Ian Hamilton Finlay, Is There a Ship Named the Wave Sheaf? c.1971
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artworks in ARTIST ROOMS: Ian Hamilton Finlay
Ian Hamilton Finlay, The Harbour (Collaboration with Michael Harvey) 1975–6
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artworks in ARTIST ROOMS: Ian Hamilton Finlay
Ian Hamilton Finlay, The End (Collaboration with Ian Gardner) 1975–6
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artworks in ARTIST ROOMS: Ian Hamilton Finlay
Ian Hamilton Finlay, Amaryllis 1975–6
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artworks in ARTIST ROOMS: Ian Hamilton Finlay
Ian Hamilton Finlay, Lead Us 1968
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artworks in ARTIST ROOMS: Ian Hamilton Finlay
Ian Hamilton Finlay, Zephyr INS 6 1975–6
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artworks in ARTIST ROOMS: Ian Hamilton Finlay
Ian Hamilton Finlay, Shepherd Lad KY 216 1975–6
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artworks in ARTIST ROOMS: Ian Hamilton Finlay
Ian Hamilton Finlay, Saved by Helicopter 1975–6
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artworks in ARTIST ROOMS: Ian Hamilton Finlay
Ian Hamilton Finlay, A LAST WORD: RUDDER 1999
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artworks in ARTIST ROOMS: Ian Hamilton Finlay
Ian Hamilton Finlay, IDYLLS END IN THUNDERSTORMS 1986
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artworks in ARTIST ROOMS: Ian Hamilton Finlay
Ian Hamilton Finlay, Starlit Waters 1967
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artworks in ARTIST ROOMS: Ian Hamilton Finlay
Ian Hamilton Finlay, Port-Distinguishing Letters of Scottish Fishing Vessels [collaboration with George L Thomson] 1976
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artworks in ARTIST ROOMS: Ian Hamilton Finlay
Art in this room
Ian Hamilton Finlay
Plaint of the Barge Sails
1975–6
Ian Hamilton Finlay
Is There a Ship Named the Wave Sheaf?
c.1971
Ian Hamilton Finlay
The Harbour (Collaboration with Michael Harvey)
1975–6
Ian Hamilton Finlay
The End (Collaboration with Ian Gardner)
1975–6
Ian Hamilton Finlay
Amaryllis
1975–6
Ian Hamilton Finlay
Lead Us
1968
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