Art and text in Ian Hamilton Finlay

This research project will focus on the early crucial period of work by Ian Hamilton Finlay in order to establish what motivated and what was at stake in these objects made in the 1960s.

Lead: Professor Andrew Patrizio, History of Art, University of Edinburgh

By doing so, the project will also provide a context for many of his later works, including those in the ARTIST ROOMS collection such as Sailing Dinghy.

The research project will be working towards initiating an exhibition with a symposium and a consequent publication which will address the transition between poetry and objects in Ian Hamilton Finlay’s early works, analysed primarily the relationship of language to the first objects that he made.