paul robertson, Author at Unoriginal Sins

15 Dec 5 PROVERBS FOR JACOBINS. 1989. SIGNED & DEDICATED BY FINLAY FROM AN EDITION OF 25O COPIES.

Posted at 07:12h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
11.6 x 7cm, 20pp plus card wrappers and printed dust jacket. Five drawings by Kathleen Lindsley are conjoined with Finlay's pithy proverbs.

"Temper harshness with tolerance, tolerance with justice"

when applied to the Jacobins (the most severe of the French revolutionary political clubs named after the religious order where they initially met) this can be seen as a plea for moderation. Another proverb reads:

"If you want to avoid the worst of the mud, walk in the ruts."

which also alludes to the moral state of the revolutionary club.
This is one of 250 signed copies which is dedicated to "Ian , with love from Ian" in red ink. VG+.

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11 Dec JOSEPH BEUYS GRAFIK UND MULTIPLES. 1989.

Posted at 10:18h in Joseph Beuys Postcards

Berlin: Galerie Fasanenstrasse, 1989
21 x 15cm, 8pp (single folded sheet) for a posthumous exhibition of multiples and other editions. The card opens to 60 x 21cm to create a poster for the show with an image of Beuys tying his shoes. VG+.

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10 Dec SOMEWHERE IN THE WOOD. MORNING STAR REPRINT. 1989

Posted at 13:20h in Artist's Postcards

Edinburgh: Morningstar Press, 1989 12.4 x 18.6cm, 4pp. Printed letterpress. Christmas card black on handmade paper with the text:
Somewhere in the wood was shining the
little red lantern of Christmas...

24 Nov INSTALLATION. 1989.

Posted at 19:41h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1990
18.7 x 9.3cm, 4pp card. The front and the back of the card has two drawings of a guillotine but one has the blade in place and is labelled "Installation" and the other sans blade is labelled "Event" on the back. The inside of the card is blank. The difference may be that the blade completes the purpose of the structure. VG+.

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20 Nov MATISSE CHEZ DUPLAY. 1989.

Posted at 20:21h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
16.9 x 12cm, 2pp. Blue on white artist's card with a quotation from Lamartine's History of the Girondists regarding the very basic furniture and ornaments found in Robespierre's room. The typography by Julie Farthing is similar to that of Matisse's handwriting and the reference to Duplay is that the latter rented the chambers to Robespierre. There is a neon of this same work. VG+.

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18 Nov BITS & PIECES/WITCHES’ POINT. 1989.

Posted at 10:27h in Joseph Beuys Postcards

NYC: Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, 1989
17.5 x 14cm, 2pp announcement card for a collection of historic works by Beuys from Caroline Tisdall's personal collection and additionally a related show of "poems and photographs" by Tisdall and Paul Van Vlissingen. One photograph of Beuys reproduced on the front. A mailed example with address label but VG+.

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23 Oct LESSONS OF DARKNESS. 1989.

Posted at 17:42h in EXHIBITION CATALOGUES

Jerusalem: The Israel Museum, 1989
27 x 21cm, 40pp plus card covers. Exhibition catalogue - part in English, part in Hebrew - with 16 b/w images of installations and works. Interview with the artist which importantly discusses his feelings being back in Jerusalem, the politics and his choice to regard himself as Jewish from the age of four. VG+ although there is a numbered sticker on the spine which does not detract.

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01 Oct FOR SIMON CUTTS. 1989.

Posted at 08:32h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
14 x 9.5cm, 4pp. Artist's folding card with the text "a line of thin pale red" inside which is a translation from Chenier - the French poet of revolutionary times who was guillotined. The red here being blood and the line that left momentarily from the clean cut of the blade. I do not know if Cutts and Finlay were friends at this point - as the card seems to hint at threat - but both published jointly a similar work together under the aegis of Cutts' Coracle Press a few years earlier. VG+.

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28 Sep JAMES LEE BYARS. 1989.

Posted at 14:39h in James Lee Byars

Paris: Galerie de France, 1989 62 x 42cm, full colour offset lithographic poster with an installation scene full sheet (with a red sphere made of flower buds) and gallery details. VG+. ...

27 Sep VOYSEY STILE. 1989.

Posted at 08:50h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
15.3 x 11.4cm, 1pp. Artist's card with a technical drawing of a fencing style by Mark Stewart which in its lines and decoration places it as art nouveau and more specifically influenced by C. F. A. Voysey who made textiles with hearts and plants as motifs. If this was ever constructed then it would be rather beautiful. VG+.

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26 Sep JOSEPH BEUYS (1921 – 1986). 1989.

Posted at 10:10h in Joseph Beuys Postcards

Zurich: Galerie & Edition Schlegl, 1989
21 x 15cm, 4pp announcement for a posthumous show with a colour photographic portrait of Beuys on the front. VG+.

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24 Sep LITTLE SPARTA. 1989.

Posted at 20:07h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
17.3 x 14.7cm, 2pp card. The card has a drawing of various classical structures overlaid - the title of Little Sparta which corresponds to Finlay's name for his own farm clearly marks the building, gardens and grounds at Dunsyre as neo-classical. VG+.

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