San Diego: Stuart Collection University of California, 1987
21 x 15cm, 4pp card for the installation of a new work by Finlay at the university UNDA. Unda is Latin for Wave and the work is sculptural. In the middle pages of the card a Finlay work (with Gary Hincks) is reproduced - it is not the same work as installed but the inscription at the bottom of the card is the same as the work on stone. VG+.
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Saint-Ettienne: La Mason de la Culture et de Communication de Saint-Ettiene, 1987
18 x 12cm, 42pp plus wrappers. Artist's book issued also as the catalogue for the solo exhibition. The book shows the photograph "Classe Terminale du Lycee Chases en 1931 Castelgasse Vienne" on the title page followed by enlargements of each of the faces of the children (not the teacher) - one each on a page. The final page of the book is an installation view showing the photographs displayed on the walls each with a lamp light above it.
We explain this work elsewhere. This example is signed in pencil on the title page. VG+.
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London: Victoria Miro, n.d. (1987)
12 x 15cm, 4pp. Announcement card for a group show with works by Lothar Baumgarten, Marie Bourget, Thomas Joshua Cooper, Chris Drury, Andy Goldsworthy, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Hamish Fulton, Wolfgang Laib, Nikolaus Lang, Bernard Lassus, Richard Long, Martin Rogers, David Tremlett, and Herman de Vries. The front of the card is a model tank by Finlay and Ian Gardner "Panzer V (Penterai Semi- Reducta) from 1979. VG+.
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NYC: n.p., 1987
5 x 5cm, colour transparency with a colour image of the Boltanski work Detective from 1987. Handwritten legend on the plastic - a slide provided by a gallery to press or clients. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
9.6 x 15.2cm, 1pp. Artist's card with the text "Myriam Salomon owns the Second World War and you are not allowed to mention it." Salomon was Catherine Millet and made public pronouncements about Finlay that linked him to the trial of the former Nazi Klaus Barbie - an actual mass murderer and torturer who was in the Gestapo. Finlay's card is not exactly high art but perhaps can be forgiven when Salomon suggested some similarities between the poet and the real Nazi. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
9.6 x 15.2cm, 1pp. Artist's card.
Louis Treize
Louis Quatorze
Louis Quinze
Louis Seize
Louis Cane
The ascending list of French Kings ends with the name of a French modernist abstract painter who eventually returned to figuration and a more naturalistic style. The list of monarchs ended temporarily the House of Bourbon until the temporary restoration post Napoleon. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
8 x 19cm, 1pp. Artist's card with a one-word poem:
A ONE-WORD POEM FOR THE LADIES OF ART PRESS, PARIS. 1987.
Knitters!
An attack on Catherine Millet and her assistant Myriam Salomon - comparing them to the women who sat next to the guillotine and knitted as victims were decapitated. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
58.0 x 39.5cm, offset lithograph print in original printed folder. The putative monument's elevation and plan by Gary Hincks is printed one above the other.
Finlay's proposal for the work included five straight stemmed silver birch trees planted amongst cobbles and a "tree-column base" at the bottom of the middle tree: tree-column bases were a sculptural innovation by Finlay where the tree could continue to grow (the base was a semi-circle allowing expansion to the back) but the base of the tree would have a permanent stone marker. The base in this proposal was planned to have the letter's R.L.S. - the capitals that Robert Louise Stephenson was often known by.
Finlay regarded the use of the birches symboling of Stephenson's interest in the Scottish landscape and the neo-classical base as a reference to RLS's childhood association with Edinburgh's New Town. The installation was eventually installed in Princes Street Gardens but the birches didn't flourish and had to be later replaced slightly incorrectly.
One of 200 copies released - VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
27 × 27cm, black and cream offset lithograph on thick paper in original printed paper folder.
Finlay's proposal for a monument to the Scottish writer was a plaque on rough stone to be set amongst a grove of birch trees. The plaque was to have a "one word poem" on it - "A MAN OF LETTERS. / R.L.S./1850 - 1894". The obvious wit being the use of the capital letters RLS which Stevenson was often referred to by reflected by the term "man of letters" which means someone involved in the literary world.
Fine in like folder.
Unlike some of Finlay's proposals this work was installed in 1989 in Edinburgh's Princes Street Gardens but the original birch trees died and were replaced.
The Public Monuments and Sculpture Association Edinburgh Sculpture Project notes: "Unfortunately, the original birches did not thrive, and were replaced a few months later so that the tree does not line up with the base as Finlay intended. Here, the classical tradition of architecture is returned to its roots in the tree." Still it is one of the very best of Finlay's public art works (unlike the awful fruit baskets at Hunter's Square at the Tron Church only a mile away)
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NYC: Michael Werner, 1987 30 x 21cm, unpaginated (44pp) plus card covers. Exhibition catalogue with ten b/w images of works (mostly in vitrines). VG....
Köln : Galerie Michael Werner, 1987 57 x 44cm, full colour folded exhibition poster with an image of a Byars sculpture - also mentions Chamberlain, Fischl, Lasker, Salle, Van Vilet. Fine. ...
NYC: Frontier Books, 1987 21 x 13.6cm, 242pp. Original wrappers. A book that contains texts about Venice where Byars purchased the book. Inside Byars has drawn a number of small motifs and texts over several pages. The first page has the text in red ink hand written by Byars: “JLB’s magic city - never entered never left/ I marry JLB in Venice a red gondola wedding full moon” And below in larger starry letting “ **** Gondalini/ rings for the sea” and “James Lee Byars Venice 1987” On the second page there are eight small sketches of geometric shapes (with stars) which might be sculptures and a large text “ The Blue Path” again in starry lettering. An unique work by the artist given as a gestural gift and showing his love of the Italian city. Slight wear to wrappers (predating Byars appropriation) else VG+....