15 Nov FIRST SUPREMATIST STANDING POEM. 1965.

22.8 x 11.3cm, 4pp. Inner pages are black, text is only on front and back of card.

The text is printed blue on the front of the card and yellow on the back. The text is as follows:

how blue!

how far!

how sad!

how small!

how white!

and the back is the same only the ! is replaced by a question mark.

The front of the card is an exclamation about the experience of looking at things – the sky is blue, it is far away, it seems sad (blue) and yet small and white (clouds). The back by a simple change of punctuation indicates doubt.

The title of the card references the Russian artist Kasimir Malevich and the name he gave to the abstract art he developed from 1913 characterised by basic geometric forms and colours. The world is a simple place it seems to say.

This is the last of Finlay’s earliest Standing Poems – he turned to publishing more standard formats of postcards for a while but returned later with D1 and the 4 sails works to the format.