30 Aug FROM THE NABIS SERIES: DER UNTERGANG DES ABENDLANDES. 1987.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
21.2 x 19.5cm, printed black on dark grey outer folder content of a single 21.2 x 19.5cm offset lithograph on bright red paper paper.
The folder has " DER UNTERGANG DES ABENDLANDES" printed at the top which is a reference to Oswald Spengler's theoretical history "Decline of the West" from 1918. The inner sheet has "effulgence of the robin" printed black in the middle of the sheet all in lower case.
Spengler (a controversial historian) can clearly be seen as a classicist and it is tempting to think Finlay is approving here of his belief in the higher aesthetics of an earlier age. Additionally the phrase" From the Nabis Series" references the short lived Nabis group of painters -Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Denis, Paul Ranson, Édouard Vuillard, Ker-Xavier Roussel, Félix Vallotton, and Paul Sérusier. symbolists who took their name from the Hebrew nebiim (which means prophet). The bright red of the insert on one level references the bright colours of the group but also may well be seen as the classical a symbol of redemption. VG+>
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