Homage: Hans Arp and Ian Hamilton Finlay

Taking its title from a line written by Hugo Ball (1886-1927), which inspired Hans Arp (1886-1966) and sparked the imagination of the Scottish artist Ian Hamilton Finlay (1925-2006), this event looks at how words and images operate in their respective work. Through talks and a round table discussion, it will reflect on correspondence between the two artists that Daniel Sturgis discovered when artist-research fellow at the Stiftung Arp e.V. (Berlin), and which can be seen to shed light on the development of Finlay’s first concrete poem “Homage to Malevich”, as well as their shared interests in the natural world and creating a vocabulary of concrete forms.

Leading scholars on both Hans Arp and Zurich Dada, and Ian Hamilton Finlay and the development of Concrete poetry in Britain, will explore the relationship between these artists, and how word and image coalesce within artists’ publications. As part of the event there will be a show and share display of publications by Arp and Finlay in Tate Library’s collection, including the influential magazine Poor. Old. Tired. Horse.

The event coincides with the Ian Hamiton Finlay centenary, which has seen exhibitions and events across the country celebrating the birth of one of Scotland’s most influential artists.

Dawn Ades
Dawn Ades is a Fellow of the British Academy, a former trustee of Tate, Professor of the History of Art at the Royal Academy and was awarded a CBE in 2013 for her services to art history. She has been responsible for some of the most important exhibitions in London and overseas over the past thirty years, including Dada and Surrealism Reviewed, Art in Latin America and Francis Bacon. Most recently she organised the highly successful exhibition to celebrate the centenary of Salvador Dalí at the Palazzo Grassi in Venice (2004) The Colour of my Dreams: The Surrealist Revolution in Art, at the Vancouver Art Gallery (2011), and was Associate Curator for Manifesta 9 (2012). She has published standard works on photomontage, Dada, Surrealism, women artists and Mexican muralists.

Eric Robertson
Eric Robertson is Professor of Modern French Literary and Visual Culture at Royal Holloway, University of London; Robertson's research focuses on 20th century French literature, especially poetry, and the visual arts, with particular emphasis on European Modernism and the avant-gardes. He is the author of Arp: Painter, Poet, Sculptor (2006), Writing Between the Lines (1995), Cendrars: the Invention of Life (2022) and Joan Miró: Feet on the Ground, Eyes on the Stars (2022). He is also the co-editor of Yvan Goll - Claire Goll: Texts and Contexts (1997), Robert Desnos: Surrealism in the Twenty-First Century (2006), Dada and Beyond Volume 1: Dada Discourses (2011) and Dada and Beyond Volume 2: Dada and its Legacies (2012). He was co-curator of ‘Arp: the Poetry of Forms’ (Kröller-Müller Museum and Turner Contemporary, 2017-18).

Daniel Sturgis
Daniel Sturgis is professor in painting at the University of the Arts London. Sturgis’ work is regularly exhibited in the UK and internationally. Recent exhibitions include Daniel Sturgis and Dan Walsh: The Science of Painting at Luca Tommasi, Milan (2021), Playground Structure at Blain Southern, London (2017) and the solo presentation The Way It Is at Luca Tommasi, Milan (2018). His curated projects include: Bauhaus Utopia in Crisis Camberwell Space & Bauhaus-Universität Weimar (2019, 2021), Against Landscape, Grizedale Arts (2017), The Indiscipline of Painting, Tate St Ives (2011), Daniel Buren Voile Toile/Toile Voile, Wordsworth Trust (2005) and Jeremy Moon A Retrospective, Kettle’s Yard (2000). Sturgis is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Contemporary Painting and has written for Burlington Contemporary and Texte zur Kunst.

Jana Teuscher
Jana Teuscher is curator at the Arp Foundation, where she researches and publishes on Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Hans Arp, and the art of their time. Her most recent essay appeared in the Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck’s exhibition catalogue Network Paris: Abstraction-Création, 1931–1937 (2025). She is particularly interested in both artists’ works on paper. Before joining the Arp Foundation, Teuscher was a research assistant at the Kupferstichkabinett (Museum of Prints and Drawings) in Berlin and a provenance researcher.

Greg Thomas
Greg Thomas is a writer and editor specialising in modern art and literature. He is the author of Border Blurs: Concrete Poetry in England and Scotland, and has written for numerous publications including, include Aesthetica, Artforum, ArtReview, Art Monthly, Art UK, British Journal of Photography, Burlington, Burlington Contemporary, Caught by the River, The List, The Little Sparta Trust, MAP, PMC Notes, PN Review, The Quietus, Scottish Art News, and The Scottish Poetry Library.