18 Sep

Posted at 15:19h in Artist's Books

Edinburgh: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1965
5.5 x 20.6cm, 28pp. Original wrappers and typographic blue dustjacket. The inner pages have single words or short phrases printed in an italic font. The text in page order is: "air/ in blue/ leaf/ blue bark/and blue leaf/ a leaf/ a barque/a blue leaf/ a barque in leaf-blue/aire" The book title Cythera is from the title of the painting - The Embarkation for Cythera ("L'Embarquement pour Cythère") by Jean-Antoine Watteau. The painting is usually regarded as highly romantic (in a love sense rather than the movement) and the couples represented by Watteau are heading to board a boat to go to the mythical idyll.
When one reads Finlay's text the sense is of romance, beauty and of the joy of being at one with nature. The text also reflects the idea of a journey and, finally, the punning of bark/barque and air/aire brings a musical aspect to the poem which might also be inferred in the painting from the stylings of the putti dancing in the air. One of Finlay's most beautiful books.
This example has a handwritten dedication by Finlay to a "Janie R" in blue ink and is dated 1965.

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15 Sep

Posted at 18:42h in Artist's Postcards

Edinburgh: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1965)
22.8 x 11.3cm, printed 1pp. Folded on both sides allowing the card to stand as intended. Printed olive green and blue on white.
JOINT WITH AS ISSUED:
13 x 11.4cm, 1pp diagrammatic card with a key to the various hearts in the standing card.

This (officially the third Standing Poem) is related to the earlier Standing Poems in various ways - firstly that the sides of the sheet bend in to allow the work to stand up, secondly a repeating pattern of shapes (roughly formed hearts) are printed in a lattice pattern over the sheet.
The Standing Poem 2 versions both have hearts as one of their motifs. It is almost as each card in turn was an evolution from the previous one (which is a reasonable argument and reflects the fact that the earlier cards had images on them that "evolved" within the card).
The colours used here differ though - olive green and blue on white is attractive but doesn't tend to evoke any particular meaning.
The separate key card that Finlay added to the paper sculpture indicates the hearts are all different and have titles - they are Little Heart, Wooden Heart, Pond Heart, Owl Heart, Jersey Heart, Umbrella Heart, Bobbin Heart and End Heart. It is hard to see any reason why these names are chosen. Other than the lazy distribution of the hearts (again somewhat loosely reflecting a constellation) it seems nothing more than a love poem of sorts. But a little thought reminds one that there are physical elements of the prefixed objects that look heart like - an owl's forehead, the point of the unfurled umbrella, a neckline from a Jersey and so on. Finlay loves a visual pun or simile and here it is if obscured.
This is a scarce card - Murray in his flawed catalogue raisonne claims it as the fourth ever card published but it is more accurately the sixth if one includes the earlier typescript from 1963 in this collection. VG+ condition.

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18 Aug

Posted at 15:06h in Artist's Books

Edinburgh: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1965
20.3 x 12.8cm, 32pp. Original wrappers and typographic dustjacket. Three pages have the word "ark" on thin paper followed by a group of differently sized pages that are white, red, yellow and blue in turn. On the first white page the word "arc" is printed. The biblical ark that Noah built was rewarded by the christian god with a rainbow "as a covenant between him and the earth". The book (again claimed to be kinetic) is a physical manifestation of that myth - the ark is given a colourful rainbow (with wrong colours) in page form. In case one had missed the meaning of the book a 19 x 8cm, 1pp insert was added quoting Genesis 2 13 - 15 which tells of the coming of that rainbow. VG example.

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15 Jul

Posted at 13:39h in Poor Old Tired Horse + Broadsides

Ardgay, Ross-shire; Wild Hawthorne Press, 1965
26 x 21cm, 8pp. The fifteenth number of Finlay’s poetry publication with contributions by Margot Sandeman who provided drawings for the entire publication, George Mackay Brown, Eli Siegel, Edwin Morgan Ian Hamilton Finlay, Hamish McLaren, Theodore Enslin, Libby Houston and R.L. Cook. VG+ condition Scarce.

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10 Jul

Posted at 18:34h in Page Works & Contributions

Stuttgart: Edition Rot, 1965
15 x 15cm, unpaginated (c. 48 pp.) plus original wrappers. A single number of this long running concrete and experimental poetry journal edited by Max Bense and Elisabeth Walther. This number has contributions by Finlay, Emmett Williams, Ladislaw Novák, Josef Hirsal, Bohumila Grögerová, Dom Sylvester Houédard, Eugen Gomringer, Gerhard Rühm, Åke Hodell, Franz Mon, Timm Ulrichs, Augusto de Campos, Haroldo de Campos, Décio Pignatari, Reinhard Döhl, Edgard Braga, Pedro Xisto, Jørgen Nash, Diter Rot, Pierre Garnier, et al.
The Finlay contribution is a lesser known work:

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07 Jul

Posted at 10:31h in Letters + Documents

26 x 22.2cm, 1pp. 223 words. A signed typed letter written at Gledfield House, Ardgay, by Finlay on c. 7 June 1965 soon after he had moved from Edinburgh, and just before he moved into the farmhouse on the estate, the first of his garden retreats, where he was to live for the following year: “We are not yet quite settled for we are in the basement of the ‘Big House’ till we get in the farmhouse in some 2 weeks… We still feel upheavaled… The farmhouse looks very nice, especially as it has a real sluice beside it, making a sound of running water. There is quite a large, and quite a wild, garden in front, and a big wood behind…”. Finlay asks to delay sending things to Hunter as “The earthships (the paper sculptural multiple Finaly issued) here need to be assembled and they are at the foot of mounds of heavy boxes… Once we are in the farmhouse we will be able to unpack properly.” The letter is signef=d “Ian” in red ink, with the typed addition “Sue too…”. Folded for mailing, o/w Fine, together with the original mailing envelope addressed in red ink by Finlay with stamp and 1965 franking (which allows dating of the missive)....

18 Jun

Posted at 14:54h in Artist's Books

Edinburgh: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1965
173 x 10.5cm, 16pp. Original wrappers and typographic dustjacket. Regarded as a "kinetic" booklet in Murray's catalogue raisonne, the text has similarities with that found in the Canal Stripe series in that the words are printed in a single long line (reflecting a canal waterway or an object moving in one direction or the flatness of a horizon). The first page is a series of blue dashes that then can on the next page be seen overprinted on the phrase "the little sail of your name in red. That phrase is then set on its own on the next page without the dashes and then finally again in the penultimate page overprinted with blue dashes and then finally the dashes alone remain. The effect is a word picture of a boat appearing and then disappearing over the horizon. That inferred movement is why it is regarded as kinetic. VG.

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15 Jun

Posted at 18:37h in Artist's Postcards

Edinburgh: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1965)
5.8 x 14.2cm, printed 1pp. Folded on both sides allowing the card to stand as intended. The inner images are of an apple and stalk in black which metamorphoses step by step into a heart. Alongside that graphical change the word LOVE slowly emerges also first with a l then LO then LOV then LOVE. On each step the letter shapes added have some similarities with the red apple shape changing - for example the V in love appears as the top of the round apple indents in a V shape as part of the way to the final image. This is then mirrored by a second exact group of images and text in parallel.
The previous standing card (Standing Card 1) involved a pear appearing and disappearing - here an apple has a similar fate. In a simple card expressing love is a depth of metaphor and physical similarities. Like much of the best of Finlay the work has multiple readings.
This is the second version of this Standing Poem 2 - it is slightly larger than the earlier (?) version, the colours are blue and black and printed on light yellow card. The black colour of the apple/heart image is a single tone in this one (in the other card they are red and black). The text L LO LOV LOVE is in italic on this version. It may be that this card was designed before the red/black version but there is no record of whether that was the case or not so it is moot. The fact it is a slightly more simplistic design perhaps suggests it was first but traditionally this is usually regarded as the second version.
This is a scarce card - Murray in his flawed catalogue raisonne claims it as the third ever card published but it is more probably the fifth if one includes the earlier typescript from 1963 in this collection. VG+ condition.

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20 May

Posted at 18:04h in Wild Hawthorn Press

Edinburgh: WIld Hawthorn Place, 1965
24 x 17cm, 10 internal sheets printed recto only plus card covers. Spiral bound. A collection of poems taken from Eric Satie's notes translated from the French by Johnson and illustrated by John Furnival. One work - PUSS IN THE CORNER - can be seen to be a "constellation" or visual poem relating the a cat stalking a mouse. Ratehr charming. One number of POTH - Poor Old Tired Horse Nr 9 - Finlay's poetry journal also included a couple of these poems but was published two years earlier than this more complete collection. This was officially the press' eleventh book.

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11 May

Posted at 10:20h in Page Works & Contributions

Sceaux: Cinquieme Saison, 1965
27 x 26cm folder with a typographic cover designed by Henri Chopin (who was also the publisher and editor) and content of bound in artworks by Francois Dufrene, Jean-Jacques Leveque. Gabriel Paris, Dora Feilane, Henri Chopin, Serge Beguier, Gianni Bertini, Francoise Saint-Thibault, Laura Sheleen, John Giorno, Brion Gysin, Bernard Heidsieck, Les Aelys, Paul-Armand Gette, Alain Jouffroy, Jean-Clarence Lambert and Rodolfo Krasno. No record was included in this special number of OU released for the Biennale.
Finlay contributs one work which was not bound in but rather left loose in the pages so is often missing - STANDING POEM 2. (APPLE/HEART 2) from 1965. This is exactly the same card as the standing poem the Wild Hawthorn Press published and sold separately - one presumes Finlay just extended the print run.

One of 475 hand numbered examples on offset satin (after 50 de tete or Hors Commerce copies). One mark on cover and a diagonal crease but internally VG+ with VG++ Finlay card..

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15 Apr

Posted at 16:07h in Poor Old Tired Horse + Broadsides

Ardgay, Ross-shire; Wild Hawthorne Press, 1965
33 x 12cm, 8pp. The seventeenth number of Finlay’s poetry publication - this number dedicated to a single concrete poem by Robert Lax and with drawings by Emil Antonucci. VG+ condition Scarce.
This was an unusual format number of the poetry journal in part caused by the format of the Lax poem which needed more vertical space than traditional works.

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