February, 1987 - Unoriginal Sins

05 Feb THE ENLIGHTENMENT (FOR ANDREW AND NICHOLAS). 1987.

Posted at 03:45h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
7.1 x 22.5cm, 1pp artist's card printed black on white - the text "The Enlightenment (for Andrew and Nicholas) is conjoined below with a second line "After decapitation the victims are lime washed" presumably to remove all trace of their bodies and existence. The Enlightenment of course was the period of expansion of liberal attitudes and knowledge based on reason which took place in both France and Scotland (and elsewhere) in the mid-18th century - hence it is inferred that the removal of Finlay's enemies from history would be a progressive move.
We have to admit not to know who the "Andrew and Nicholas" referred to on the card are VG+.

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05 Feb CRAZY DIM WIM THE WEE WIMP’S IN HIS CRAZY WIND MILL. 1987.

Posted at 03:25h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
13.5 x 10.1cm, 1pp artist's card printed red on white - the text attacking Wim Meulenkamp one of the co-authors of the Follies Guide which so insulted Finlay is in the shape of a windmill. amusing because of the use of Scots and alliteration else a bit meh. VG+.

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05 Feb JEUNESSE DOREE OF THE COUNTER-REVOLUTION. 1987.

Posted at 02:06h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
12.5 x 14.9cm, 1pp. Artist's card with a typographic design attacking Gwynn Headley, Wim Meulenkamo and Waldemar Januszszack - identifying them as the entitled, bourgeois youth of the counter-revolution (in fact all were already middle aged so Finlay's barb was also a patronising insult) VG+.

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05 Feb HEAD LEY. 1987.

Posted at 01:40h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
15 x 10cm, 1pp artist's card. The drawing of the guillotine with a head that has just been cut off with blood gushing everywhere has the name of Finlay's new found enemy Headley split in two on both sides of the killing machine. Below the drawing the phrase "Terror is the piety of the Revolution." Both the idea and texts had been used by Finlay before - the card Dialogue printed in the same year is essentially the same card. VG+.

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05 Feb ACCORDING TO THE NATIONAL TRUST. 1987. WITH FINLAY POST IT NOTE.

Posted at 01:35h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
11 x 8cm, 1pp Artist's card attacking the Follies book published by the National Trust:

ACCORDING TO THE NATIONAL TRUST
The certifiable build the abbeys The sane build the tearooms.

National Trust supported buildings in the UK almost always have a tea-room added to them. On the reverse there is a post-it note on which Finlay has written "A Follies War Card". VG+.

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04 Feb FEBRUARY 4. NOTHING! 1987.

Posted at 19:42h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
14 x 12.5cm, 2pp artist's card released on the fourth anniversary of the First Battle of Little Sparta. The card quotes Jules Claretie reporting on Louis XVI writing "Nothing" in his diary on the night of the storming of the Bastille (this is unfair on Louis as the reference to "nothing" was actually his recording of a failure to catch anything while hunting but the story is usually told as to prove he was out of touch). Louis was indeed out of touch (he went hunting on that day after all) but that diary entry was not evidence of it but Finlay uses the quote to taunt his enemies' failure to storm the Temple Gallery on that day four years earlier thanks to the actions of the Saint-Just Vigilantes. This card is hand address to Peter Townsend, Editor of Art Monthly by Finlay. VG+

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03 Feb STICKER FOR VICTORY. 1987.

Posted at 19:50h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d.. (1987)
17 x 13cm, 1pp artist's card with a photograph of a sticker having been stuck to the outside spine of the Follies A National Trust Guide by Gwyn Headley and Wim Meulenkamp which Finlay had condemned for misrepresenting Little Sparta as a "folly". The sticker reads "Censored by the Saint-Just Vigilantes". ...

03 Feb DIALOGUE. 1987.

Posted at 12:30h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
11.8 x 14.1cm, 2pp card. An appropriated drawing of a guillotine is matched with a text which shows only part of the name Headley (---LEY) as if the name of the main author of the National Trust publication "Follies" has been decapitated (the additional joke being that the part removed is the HEAD). Underneath the first there is the French text - "Je perds une tete" and under the guillotine "J'en trouve une" - I have lost a head/I find one. VG+

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03 Feb MENU A LA CARTE. 1987.

Posted at 01:15h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
13.6 x 8.2cm, 1pp Artist's card presenting a faux menu of Danton, followed by Hebert then Clooz followed by Meulenkamp and Headley. The first three names in order were guillotined under the orders of the Committee for Public Safety, the last two only in Finlay's revengeful fantasies.VG+.

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