24 Sep

Posted at 17:23h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1992
11.5 x 11.2cm, 4pp. Folding card with a drawing of a still life by Kathleen Lindsley on the front of a basket of fruit, flowers and a crayfish. Fructidor was the twelfth month in the French Republican Calendar: named after the Latin word fructus, which means "fruit"
Each month in the republican calendar lasted 30 days and the weeks were repurposed to ten days each called decades. Further within every decade, each day had the name of an agricultural plant, except the fifth day when there was the name of an animal, and on the last the name of an agricultural tool.
In his instruction to the artist, Finlay has had same the ten fruits and flowers and animal included in the basket as in the names of the last decade of the month (the last name of the decade being actually "basket". VG+

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22 Sep

Posted at 22:18h in Poems in folders

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1992
15.3 x 11.1cm, 4pp grey outer folder with a drawing of a fallen leaves printed in green. Internally a 15.3 x 11.1cm, 4pp sheet with a poem:

SUICIDE NOTE

"The canoe
of life
is shattered.."

The windblown
willows' leaves
hide the path.

The suicide note referred to is from the Russian avant-garde poet Mayakovsky. The reference to the 'canoe of life is shattered" is a direct quote from his despairing final letter. Finlay brings attention to the shape of the willow leaves that have fallen (shattered by the wind) to the ground. The image on the front of the folder also shows that death of the leaves.

This is one of a series of works which the Wild Hawthorn Press denoted as "Poems in folders". VG+.

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19 Sep

Posted at 09:45h in ARTIST’S BOOKS

Saint-Gall: Stiftsbibliothek, n.d. (1992)
10.5 x15cm, 8pp (original postcards bound in) plus front and back cards. Artist's book consisting of postcards showing installation views of a small exhibition of books by Boltanski from a library exhibition in the abbey of Saint-Gall. The show consisted of a single vitrine it seems. The images do not really allow one to see the books but the library is clearly impressive. The installation was organised by Hans Ulrich Obrist but he claims elsewhere his first curated exhibition was one year later (which also included Boltanski).
Reference: Calle Boltanski Artist's Books Page 76.

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24 Aug

Posted at 17:38h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1992
15.9 x 20cm, 2pp. Card with a reproduced colour painting by Gary Hincks with the various names of important female figures in the French revolution illustrated with particular flowers. Éléonore Duplay, here "Madame Duplay" was Robespierre's companion and possible lover. She is shown as a wildflower (a sometime symbol of zeal in Finlay) - possibly Queen Anne's Lace but that is not certain just our amateur identification. The was also a large print version of this work (see elsewhere on this site).
This example has been posted and is hand addressed by Finlay in bklack ink with a note "love from Ian 23.8.92" to Dawn MacLeod. VG but a little battered by the mailing system.

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19 Aug

Posted at 15:54h in Exhibition Catalogues

Edinburgh: Fruitmarket Gallery, 1992
23 x 17.5cm, 108pp plus blue embossed and foil stamped boards. The exhibition catalogue for a group exhibition of works by a range of artists including Finlay. While not being specific to concrete and visual poetry the events (which included talks, films and workshops as well as the exhibition) - a large number of those exhibited worked in that field. A number of Finlay's works are reprodcued in full colour
Poiesis as we all know is a definition of poetry as "anything supremely harmonious or satisfying" - which to be fair describes much of Finlay's work and motivation and is almost a definition of neo-classicism. Minor wear at folds else VG..

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16 Aug

Posted at 12:14h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1992
8.4 x 15.7cm, 4pp card. Two water colour paintings by Gary Hincks of wild growing flowers have two different Finlay definition works noted below each - the first is:

WILDFLOWER, n. a wayside text

and

WILDFLOWER, n. an inflammatory text

VG+.

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10 Aug

Posted at 19:10h in Invitation Cards

Edinburgh: Graeme Murray Gallery/Fruitmarket Gallery 1992
21 x 7.8cm, 4pp announcement card with offers of editions and books released during the solo exhibition with a reproduction of Finlay's Evening Will Come They Will Sew The Blue Sail on the front in blue on white. The card announces the release of the second edition of the print (which was signed and numbered unlike the first edition from 1970). VG+.

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26 Jul

Posted at 13:02h in Poems in folders

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn, n.d. (1999?)

19 x 14.5cm, 4pp green on white printed card (with an image of a second world war fighter plane flying over open water. Internally a 19 x 14.5cm, 4pp green on white printed card with the names of five military airplanes (fighters, bombers and reconnaissance planes) and their dates of service much as one would name dead combatants. All of the planes had names based on popular English forenames. Murray has this (in the supplement to his catalogue raisonee as a poem in a folder so we have continued that classification.

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15 Jun

Posted at 17:15h in Proposals

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
23.2 x 12.5cm, 8pp. A proposal for a public work at the Botanic Gardens, University of Durham where a post of green oak is carved with a combination of numbers that are rearranged in each row (as a "method " used by bellringers) - Finlay notes this references the nearby Cathedral with its bells and the foxglove plants that also have bells. Three watercolour paintings by Ron Costley are reproduced. VG+....

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