Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1988
3.1 x 7.1cm, 4pp with 4pp stapled insert. Artist's card which has the words Sail and Boat on the inside of the white insert both set at an angle perhaps to indicate the physical orientation of both visual images. A minimalist work by Finlay. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Finlay, 4th May 1988
Two original vintage xerox stapled sheet (both recto) of a letter from Finlay to "Inez" (Inez Horst-Aletrino - a Dutch painter who was close to the Finlay family).
Finlay points out that his life has been a "nightmare" following the accusations of Catherine Millet and he notes he is inclosing for information his statement for a "right of reply" in France as well as a "transcript of the radio broadcast which led to the cancellation of the Versailles project".
Finlay points out that "none of those taking part have ever seen our garden. The broadcast is LIES and INVENTIONS designed to destroy Sue and I. Never before have I encountered such EVIL. It has changed our lives for ever."
An important letter showing the impact the controversy was having on the Finlay family at the time.
JOINT:
Twelve 30 x 21cm, original vintage xerox sheets (all printed recto) with a transcript (in French) of the radio programme hosted by Stephane Paoli in which Catherine Miller, Michel Blum and Catherine Duhamel discuss Finlay and libel him with charges of being anti-Semite. Millet begins by claiming a work (OSSO) has a SS double lightning strike symbol on it and makes the rather simplistic reading of the work that it is pro-nazi. They then raise the matter of Finlay's commission by the French government of a major public work and Blum claims that Finlay's correspondence with the jailed Albert Speer is further proof of national socialist sympathies. The programme continues in the same vein - Millet makes several claims about works in Little Sparta (works she had never seen) that were evidence of National Socialist sympathies eg the washing line that Sue and Ian Finlay joked was called the Seigfried Line (a joke that is obvious to those of British background as there was a popular anti-Hitler song of that name in the second world war "Hang out the washing on the Siegfried Line".
An important document that documents the outrageous way in which the French critics used lies and exaggerations to stoke public anger against Finlay his and eventually cause the commission to be withdrawn by the French Government without any explanation.
joint:
Handwritten cardboard envelope addressed to Inez Horst-Aletino from Finlay.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1988 15 x 21cm, 2pp. Artist's card with lettering drawn by John R. Nash. The three words - Bark, Barque and Baroque - are not only a progression in the number of letters all based on the phoneme Bar(k) but an increase in sophistication from the plain (wood) to the baroque via the elaborate bargue. Additionally the three words also refer to the three masted sailing ship. VG+. ...
Little Sparta, Finlay, n.d.
A handwritten note on a blue Raspberry republic letterhead (other similar RR letterheads were usually in red but Finlay had a store of different stationery to be used in different situations as suited his needs) to Edward and Sam. +Finlay notes tha "the cats are fed for today. Your can ate eat vegetables from the allotment + the (?) from the pantry (?) ands the freezer.
There are clean clothes on the beds.
Love Ian."
Just a friendly note left for visitors staying at Little Sparta. It is nice to hear the cats were being well looked after. We do not know who Edward and Sam were.
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Little Sparta: Finlay, n.d. (c. May 1988)
An original vintage xerox 30 x 21cm, 1pp statement from Finlay which is worth quoting in full:
"What is happening today in respect of Kurt Waldheim and Paul de Man is not a natural process of criticism - it is the systematic, vivisection, carried out by the obscene Mengales of 'democratic' letters. What is been demanded of fellow men - yes fellow men - is not that they made the correct moral decisions in their own time, not even simply simply that they were super heroes but they predicted and fell in with the pseudo moral linguistic fashions of 40 years on. Very well, let us anticipate the day when our vivisectionists are asked, not what they had to say, with on remarkable hindsight, about the deportation of the Jews, but what they had to say, looking around them, about the deportation of Arabs. And more, let us anticipate the question to be put to us: Did (sic) the huge inhumanity of these Mengales not produce in you a single letter of protest - not one tear in your eye, not one ache in your heart? Oh how brave you are, you who regard yourselves as exempt from history. See how you always fight those battles which others one for you a long time ago."
Kurt Waldheim was an Austrian politician who it was revealed to have been implicated in Nazi mass murder when he tried for a second time to become Austrian President in 1988. Paul de Man was a literary critic and philosopher who after his death had his previously unknown articles supporting collaboration with the Nazi revealed. Finlay seems to be arguing that moral positions cannot be taken aside from the historical context that they were made in. This is probably the least convincing of Finlay's arguments as Waldheim does seem to have known about the murder of Yugoslavian resistance fighters - which perhaps was not known at the time. But one can say it is a valid argument to make even if one does not ultimately agree with it.
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Little Sparta: Finlay, n.d. (c. May 1988)
An original vintage xerox 30 x 21cm, 1pp statement from Finlay in the guise of the Saint-Just Vigilantes pointing out that Strathclyde Regiona had placed arrestment orders of £10,920 against an alleged rate debt of £4,370 and that the Region had already seized £2,800 against the same debt in February 1988. Finlay also points out that the Region had taken works of art by force five years earlier against the debt, works which they still retained.
Finlay explains that the disputed building is entered in the valuation roll as a "garden temple".
"In law the Region is obliged to accept this description but has persisted in using the phrase 'commercial art gallery'. Unable to grasp the nature of a building they have never visited, they also demand the right to interpret the law within the confines of their own understanding."
Finlay points out in the statement that the Region has refused any rates appeal hearing and by their recent arrestment orders has renewed its attack on Little Sparta exactly when the Glasgow Garden Festival is about to take place.
In protest at these actions Finlay announces that "we have withdrawn from all public projects in Scotland including the Glasgow Garden Festival, the Robert Louis Stevenson Memorial and projects in progress for the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art" and calls on others to withdraw from the Garden Festival.
JOINT (stapled to the statement):
Two xerox sheets (both 30 x 21cm, 1pp) with a text and an image of Finlay's 'APHRODITE OF THE TERROR' - the text by Stephen Bann explaiins the work and it's classical origins. Finlay in his statement says the Region's actions are an "apt commentary" on the work.
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Little Sparta: Finlay, 1988
Five original vintage xeroxes each 30 x 21cm, 1pp with press cuttings (all 1988) from The Times Literary Supplement, The Scotsman (2), and two unidentified Dutch newspapers reproducing letters to the Editor and articles about Finlay as well as one by Wim Meulenkamp (one of Finlay's accusers) in which he responds to positive support for Finlay from the Kroller-Muller museum and outrageously calls Finlay once again a "crypto-fascist".
One article in the Scotsman Arts Review of May 23 1998 is by Duncan Macmillan (who for once gets it right) describes the original commission in details - clearly fed background on the various meanings of the proposed work by Finlay - in some detail. It makes one regret the work never having been made.
Copied at the time by Finlay to distribute to friends and press as a source of information. VG although some rippling of the paper.
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Little Sparta: Finlay, 30th April 1988
An original vintage xerox 30 x 21cm, 1pp with a Press Release from Finlay relating to the arrestment of £4,600 from their bank accounts by the means of "32 arrestment orders" and that "Strathclyde Region has issued a further 9 arrestment orders" obtaining another £1,850.
Finlay claims that the Strathclyde Region had lied to the Scotsman Arts editor that no money had been taken and therefore the act had not been covered in the newspaper.
Finlay also point out that the Region's Sheriff Officer stated that the money had been "taken in error" but had not been returned to the Finlay accounts by time of writing.
The final humorous sentence states that "a spokesman for the Region has observed that we should have known better than to keep money in our bank account."
It is worth noting that in 1988 Finlay did not have his troubles to seek - the fight with Strathclyde Region over the rating of the Temple building in Little Sparta had not gone away and he was also fighting against the cancellation of a major installation in France (where no doubt the fee would have come in useful given the other financial attacks he was facing such as the above) and vindictive accusations of being a "crypto=fascist".
A copy of the press release distributed by Finlay to friends and supporters as part of the latter's information campaign against his opponents.
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Little Sparta: Finlay, 30th April 1988
An original vintage xerox 30 x 21cm, 2pp with a reproduced letter from Finlay to Michel Blum (one of his accusers) at the Ligue des Droits de l'Homme - Finlay writes in anger that Blum has not replied to his questions asking if Blum had actually seen any of Finlay's works that he condemned but instead replied with "a renewal of your accusations, couched in the coldest, most cruel terms."
Finlay then continues:
"Let it be said that your attacks on me are in no way a matter of a cultural disagreement. They are attacks which given the terminology you use, can only have the effect of destroying me, my livelihood, Sue Finlay, and our children. I say that you are an intellectual terrorist: I tell you further, that those who casually and contemptuously destroy innocent people are taking a very great risk."
"I last saw you wearing a pair of high, polished boots and carrying a little whip in your hand. Your behaviour will not be forgotten. You will not always be so happy to be Maitre Michel Blum."
Finlay could be cutting.
Copied at the time by Finlay to distribute to friends and press as a source of information. VG
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Little Sparta: Finlay, n.d. (April 1988)
An original vintage xerox 30 x 21cm, 1pp with a Press Release from Finlay announcing the appointment of two Parisian lawyers - Maitre Zylberstein and Maitre Nordman. it notes that the former represented Daniel Buren when he was in conflict with the French Government and the latter a prominent member of the French Communist Party and represented the victims of the Nazi Claus Barbie in the (then) recent trial in France.
The statement announces that "actions for damages are being taken against Jonathan Hirschfeld and a number of French publications as well as against the French government. A "Droit de Reponse" is also being sought."
The statement also announces that "on the night of April 26 the French Section of the Saint-Just Vigilantes carried out a series of poster raids on enemy territory. Among the target-buildings were the French Ministry of Culture, the offices of Art Press and Galeries magazine, the Hirschfeld residence, and the Ligue des Droits de l'Homme. The posters carried a text from Dante: "Lasciate Ogni Speranza Voi CH'Enratre!".
Those words are the famous warning over the gates to Hades - Abandon hope, all who enter here!
Finally the statement notes "the smear campaign being carried out by Waldemar Januszczak of the Guardian, Gwyn Headley the publicist, Wim Meulenkamp, Warren Davis of the National Trust and others in England and Holland. "Appropriate action is being prepared."
A copy of the press release distributed by Finlay to friends and supporters as part of the latter's information campaign against his opponents - in it all of Finlay's enemies are name checked.
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n.p.: n.p. (Maitre Jean-Claud Zylberstein), n.d. (1988)
An original vintage xerox 30 x 21cm, 1pp copy of a statement (here in the original English) made by Finlay's lawyer Maitre Jean-Claud Zylberstein on the day that he announced actions for damages against Jonathan Hirschfeld, Art press, the magazine Galeries and the French Government.
The statement notes the horror felt by Finlay at being attacked as being a Nazi and being anti-semitic and the background where a work OSSO exhibited in Paris ARC in 1987 was mis-interpreted: "the work equated the SS insignia with the "primal wildness" of nature and with death. In the exhibition it was contrasted with the perfected forms of culture represented by the neo-platonic Cubes. This was clearly set out in the texts displayed in the exhibition".
The attacks on Finlay by Jonathan Hirschfeld who Finlay had co-exhibited with in the Fondation Cartier were also explained. Maitre Jean-Claud Zylberstein argues that Hirschfeld picked a fight in private correspondence with Finlay and then released them with deliberate mistranslations to make Finlay look bad.
"A man is not a Nazi because he identifies the SS with savage nature or because he defends himself when attacked unreasonably by a man who happens to be jewish."
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20.2 x 25.2cm, black and white silver gelatine vintage press photograph of the title installation installed at the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art during the exhibition Lessons of Darkness in 1988. This photograph was later signed in blue ink on the front by Boltanski. Press details on the reverse else VG+.
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