17 Jul

Posted at 09:23h in Object + Paper Multiples

Edinburgh: Morning Star Publications, n.d. (1989)
A selection of seven different "bookmarks" by Lorine Niedecker, Thomas A. Clark, Basho (translated by Cid Corman), Cid Corman and four by Ian Hamilton Finlay. Two of the bookmars are reprints of earlier cards - Tree (Arbre) and Leaf bark - which are described elsewhere in this catalogue to which two additional cards are added both lists of "definitions" for words beginning with A: Affluence, Allotment, Angel, Apollo, Arcadia, Arrow and a relevant quote.
The edition size is not known. Morning Star Publications was the press set up by Finlay's son Eck (later Alex Finlay). While individually we have catalogued the earlier items as artist's postcards - here as a group we are identifying this as a paper multiple. All VG+. ...

14 Jul

Posted at 13:24h in Prints + Posters

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
42 x 30cm, red and black on white offset lithograph on satin paper. The text: "Planting trees of Liberty on the scaffold and placing death's scythe in the hands of the law." This was produced as a poster for the Saint-Just Vigilantes - is a epigram by Finlay on the unjust practices of the French revolution's Terror but a text that clearly Finlay felt could be equally applied to Strathclyde Region with whom he was in dispute over the rating of the Little Sparta Temple building - which they claimed was an art gallery, and Finlay claimed was a religious building. VG.

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14 Jul

Posted at 13:18h in Prints + Posters

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
42 x 30cm, red and black on white offset lithograph on satin paper. The text is a lengthy quotation from Marat; the poisonous revolutionary journalist who condemned many to death via his pen during the Terror. The text is amusingly critical of the Parisian character - Marat might have been a bastard but he was a talented bastard. This print was produced as a poster for the Saint-Just Vigilantes - and by extension is a criticism of Strathclyde Region who had raided Finlay's farm and "stolen" under warrant sale various works from the Temple in a dispute over rates. VG.

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13 Jul

Posted at 19:11h in Proposals

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987 29.6 x 21cm, 4pp folded sheet with a proposal for a colour brick wall in green amongst a group of trees. Finlay takes the idea from Theocritus's Idylls "a line of green among the trees" and creates a work of land art in a modern garden in Athens. There is a drawing of the installation by Andrew Townsend. VG+. ...

07 Jul

Posted at 11:25h in Exhibition Catalogues

Killkenny: Butler Gallery, 1989
16 x 11.6cm, 24pp. Original wrappers with printed green dust jacket. A catalogue for a show in Ireland but the booklet was designed by Finlay for the exhibition and could easily be regarded as an artists's book. Ten b/w photographs of Little Sparta by Martyn Greenhaugh are placed above quotations from Finlay's "Detached Sentences on Gardening". There is also a commentary of the works in the exhibition by Yvex Abrioux. VG+.

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03 Jul

Posted at 19:28h in ARTIST’S BOOKS

Mejan d'Arles: Actes Sud, 1989
19 x 9.8cm, 48pp plus card covers. First edition of this artist's book that reproduces found b/w vintage portraits of unknown people. VG+

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26 Jun

Posted at 15:15h in Prints + Posters

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
29.7 x 21cm, b/w lithograph with two parallel drawings by Gary Hincks which have similarities with each other. One a guillotine - the agency of the Terror - and the other a waterfall - in itself a phenomena of nature's violence. FInlay as often draws metaphors from human objects and the power of the landscape. VG.

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24 Jun

Posted at 11:37h in Exhibition Catalogues

Schwabisch Hall: Stadische Galerie am Markt 1989
21x 15cm, 16pp (including wrappers). Exhibition catalogue for a show in Germany which notes 27 works being displayed - all relating to the French revolution. Five images of installations, the gallery show, and drawings/prints are reproduced along with a b//w portrait of Finlay wearing a sheepskin coat on the cover - very much looking like a farmer. Short text in German. VG+.

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23 Jun

Posted at 19:49h in Proposals

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989.
20.3 x 31.5cm, 4pp folded print - offset lithograph green on silk paper. Finlay proposes a series of five arches of wood around a semi-circular path of bricks. The path passes through a "wilder" part of the garden at which point the arch is entirely "rusticated" but the beginning and end of the path has more "rectilinear" wood as the basis for the arch. Three diacrams/plans/drawings by Robert Johnson.

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22 Jun

Posted at 15:31h in EPHEMERA

Zurich: Parkett Editions, 1998
10.5 x 15cm, 2pp announcement card for the release of the artist's book by the Swiss publishers - an image of the ring bound book on the front.. VG+.

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22 Jun

Posted at 15:29h in Poems in folders

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
13.4 x 9.2cm, 4pp red outer folder with a drawing by Kathleen Lindsley. Internally a 13.4 x 9.2cm, 4pp sheet with a poem:

Avenue Studios, Fulham Road*

Rose
Pettigrew

Pettigrew
Rose

Rose Pettigrew was the most significant of Whistler's models but later is recorded as falling in love with Philip Wilson Steer (apparently unrequited). Steer was one of the artists who lived at the Avenue Studios which gives this poem it's name.
By reersing the model's name in the second part of the poem, Finlay is comparing her to an English rose.
This is one of a series of works which the Wild hawthorn Press denoted as "Poems in folders". VG+.

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22 Jun

Posted at 11:31h in Poems in folders

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
10.4 x 14.1cm, 4pp light brown outer folder. Internally a 10.4 x 14.1cm, 4pp sheet with a poem and a drawing (a still life)by Carlo Rossi.
The poem is:

Still-life
"From the Monad and the Dyad
Come the numbers"
- Of 'le violon', 'la musique',
Et 'la carafe'.

The poem cites a pre-Socratic saying meaning that number is an emerging-property of units and elements. Those elements in a still life are a violin, music and a jug which are common in most period still-lives.
This was one of a series of "poems in folders". VG+.

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