1964 - Unoriginal Sins

14 Dec THE STAR IN THE STABLE OF LIGHT. 1964. VERY EARLY CHRISTMAS CARD SIGNED.

Posted at 21:26h in Artist's Postcards

Edinburgh: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1964
14 x 16cm, 4pp (folded single card). This card is 1965 (as can be attested by the franking on the envelope and not 1964 as Murray's very flawed catalogue raisonne has it). According to Murray this was Finlay's second published card but we have examples of other cards from before this time that Murray did not know about - but this is early nonetheless and part of Finlay's habit of producing bespoke Xmas cards for friends. This card simply has the title words on the front - each centred around the middle line. A religious reference to the crib but also to the way a heavenly star will often be seen to have a shimmer surrounding it - again one might imagine a reference to a crown (from an attending King perhaps?).
An extremely hard card to find - we have seen only 3 examples in 20 years and it took us that same amount of time to find one for this collection. One small tear to the card on the right from being poorly opened in the envelope, internally this is signed "Happy Christmas from Ian" and is with the original postal envelope hand addressed by Finlay to Fred Hunter.

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14 Dec NETS NIGHT STAR FISH. 1964. WITH HAND WRITTEN XMAS GREETINGS TO VICTOR VASERELY FROM FINLAY..

Posted at 16:23h in Artist's Postcards

Edinburgh: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1964)
16.3 x 27.9cm, 1pp. Printed blue and orange on off white card. An extremely early Xmas card sent out privately by Finlay to friends and associates. The work is a concrete poem which contains recognisable early themes by the poet - the words all relate to the experience of commercial but small scale night time fishing in Scotland - the nets, the star, the fish all can be found in the shape of a constellation (later similar works build on this idea). This card on the back has a handwritten greeting "Happy Christmas to Victor (Vaserely) from Ian" and the date 1964. The latter is important because else this card is unknown in the literature and the date would be unknown.
Former folded in the middle and some stains but this is a rarity amongst Finlay artist postcards.

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19 Nov WE ARE ALL ONE WE ARE ALL 1 ONE ALL ARE WE ARE ALL ONE. c.1964

Posted at 15:34h in Jud Yalkut

Garnerville: USCO, n.d. (c. 1964) 22 x 26cm, blue/w publicity leaflet with a full sheet image of a guru that Yalkut followed and the title text around him the co-operative art group USCO - USCO founded by Gerd Stern, Michael Callahan, and Steve Durkee in New York. USCO, an acronym for Us Company or the Company of Us. A very scarce item....

19 Nov GUIDANCE COUNSELLING NAVIGATION AND CONTROL IS OUR BUSINESS. C. 1964.

Posted at 15:33h in Jud Yalkut

Garnerville: USCO, n.d. (c. 1964) 22 x 26cm, blue/w publicity leaflet with a full sheet reproduction collage by Yalkut to promote the co-operative art group USCO - USCO founded by Gerd Stern, Michael Callahan, and Steve Durkee in New York. USCO, an acronym for Us Company or the Company of Us. A very scarce item....

06 Nov VORANZEIGE JOSEF BEUYS. 1964.

Posted at 11:28h in Joseph Beuys Postcards

Berlin: Galerie Rene Block, 1964 15 x 11cm, typographic design announcement card silkscreen printed white on brown card for the preview of a Beuys performance - it is not clear what this performance consisted of as this proceeds his action Der Chef. Very rare early card. ...

25 Oct POLAR. 1964.

Posted at 21:42h in Wild Hawthorn Press

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1964
55 x 43cm, blue and light blue on white silkscreen. This visual poem by Furnival is an image of the Great Bear (Ursa Major) made up of the words BEAR, OURS, NU. Much like in the night sky the shape points to the POLE Star but here it is designated POLAR - hence creating a polar bear.
This was the tenth ever print created by the Wild Hawthorn Press and is very rare.
There are pin pricks in the corners of the print where it has been placed on a wall (possibly during poetry readings and then recovered as Finlay often did in the early years. Murray 1.10.
BR>...

23 Oct POEM/PRINT. 1964. THE NINTH PUBLICATION OF THE PRESS.

Posted at 23:19h in Wild Hawthorn Press

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1964
55 x 43cm, red and black silkscreen. Concrete poem typical of Kriwet's style of overlapping text to make larger patterned images. One of 300 such prints made. This was the ninth publication of the press (if one does not take in account the early POTHs). VG condition. Murray has this as 1.9.

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23 Sep PARADIS. 1964. THE EIGHTH PUBLICATION OF THE PRESS.

Posted at 23:14h in Wild Hawthorn Press

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1964
43 x 55cm, green and blue silkscreen. Concrete poem published by Finlay's Press from the turn of the century experimental poet. Paradis is a sign post of sorts placing an idyllic, mythical place 1.5 km between "here" and "there". This was the eighth publication of the press. Albert-Birot died only 3 years after this publication. VG condition.

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21 Sep THE BUILDER. 1964. VERY EARLY ESSAY ON FINLAY & CONTRIBUTIONS.

Posted at 22:21h in Monographs & Essays

London: The Builder, n.d. (1964)
17.5 x 21cm, 52pp. Oversize printed orange wrappers. A single number of this remarkably on point small journal which has here essays on dsh, John Furnival, Henri Chopin, David Hockney (all with illustrations) and Ian Hamilton Finlay who has contributed two works in b/w and there is an uncredited portrait drawing of the poet. One article of note is dsh's translation of Garnier's 'Spacialist Manifesto' which Chopin responds to.
Sadly the inner text block has come away from the wrappers but this is a rare and very early item.

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23 Aug EPITAPH FUR KONRAD BAYER. 1964. THE SEVENTH PUBLICATION OF THE PRESS.

Posted at 23:04h in Wild Hawthorn Press

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1964
58 x 43cm, orange and blue silkscreen. Concrete poem - one of the earliest publications of the press. The print is a number of letters N, O and T placed in such a way that different combinations create small words. NON, NOT, TOT - which have negative overtones in English and German. The larger shape of all the letters looks like an X - another negation.
Bayer was an Austrian writer and poet who was a member of the Wiener Gruppe. Franz Mon was also an experimental poet and like Bayer was also influenced by Dada.
Very good condition - this was the seventh publication (ignoring the POTHs) released by Finlay's press. VG condition.

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29 Jul UNTITLED. 1964?

Posted at 10:22h in Page Works & Contributions

N.p.: n.p., n.d. (1964?) Two stapled sheets - one 20.5 x 20.5cm, the other 25 x 20.5cm both black on yellow. An untitled broadside. The first has a work by dsh - Sonic Water - and the other works by ee cummings, Edwin Morgan, dsh, Ernst Jandl, Eugen Gomringer and Summer Vocabulary lesson by Finlay. The latter is a very early experimental poem:

1. Is the tea infished?
2. It is infished.
3. Suffishiently?
4. Suffishiently.
___________________
1. is it pouring? 2. It is pouring.
3. the rain is pouring.
4. May I pour?

The poem in two parts firstly discusses the tea pot and whether it was full but with a punny reference to fish, the second compares the pouring of the tea to rain.

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18 Jul TELEGRAMS FROM MY WINDMILL. 1964

Posted at 14:43h in Artist's Books

Edinburgh: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1964
12 x 18.7cm, 36pp. Original wrappers and cream dustjacket with a design based on an old fashioned post office telegram. An artist's book of concrete poems (printed red on white) which are facsimile of typewriter designs by Finlay. One is reminded of Guillaume Apollinaire's calligrammes where Finlay has used the shape of the typed words to give additional meaning.

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