Minneapolis: Hermetic Press, 1986
7x 5m, 4pp Artist's card with the "dialectic" poem:
river
OCEAN
lake
Lake being the synthesis of the thesis (river) and anti-thesis OCEAN.
Torn edges as per the printing and joint with the original Hermetic Press envelope. VG+. Scarce.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
14 x 18.4m, 1pp Artist's card with a b/w photograph of a field of sheep near Little Sparta by . Finlay writes underneath "The wine-dark sea, the turnip-marbled field" and "The Hyperborean Apollo of Walter Pater's Apollo in Picardy. In little Sparta he is identified with Saint-Just.". Greek mythology is mixed with Finlay's French revolutionary hero and the landscape which is a prosaic, rural version of Arcadia. VG+.
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Cambridge: Kettle's Yard, 1986
21 x 15cm, 56pp. Original wrappers . An exhibition catalogue for a show of artist's books which included Christian Boltanski, Annette Messager, John Latham, Anslem Kiefer and Finlay amongst others. Short texts on each artist. This is more notable however for the bound in 14 x 8cm, 8pp original artist's book by Finlay (which was also published elsewhere by the Wild Hawthorn Press) - Two Billows - from 1980. The blue booklet has on one side of the centre pages the text: "greeness, leaf or bark: and on the other "greeness, leaf or barque" - this changes the image from a tree being blown around to that of a boat being pushed by the wind. We are placing this item in the Page Works & Contributions section but it could be equally be found in artist's books or exhibition catalogues. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1986
18 x 13cm, 4pp Artist's card black on light blue (to reflect the colour of the flower) with a drawing of the forget-me-not on the front by Stephanie Kedik and a text:
Myosotis Sylvatica
Forget-me-Not
A wild
flower
within
Memory of a loved one is compared to a wild flower growing in the body. VG+.
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NYC: Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, n.d. (1986) 15.3 X 11cm, 2pp announcement card for an early posthumous show (Beuys had died only 9 months earlier) with an image of the artist in the performance "Neues vom Kojoten" - photo by Eevan Inkeri. Verso gallery details. A mailed example with typed address but still VG+. ...
NYC: Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, 1986
10.5 x 15cm 2pp. Announcement card for a posthumous show which took place only 9 months after the artist's sudden death. Image on the front of a Beuys action (probably The Hearth from 1975 which took place in the same gallery). A mailed copy with typed address verso else VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
17.4 x 18.3m, 1pp Artist's card with a b/w photograph by Antonia Reeve of the road up to Little Sparta and the first gate encountered after reaching the sheep field. . Finlay writes underneath "Little Sparta's Eastern Frontier at the time of The First Battle of Little Sparta february 4 1983. The old gate marks the site of the barrier, which has since been removed." Checkpoint Charlie was the nickname for the best known crossing point between East and West Berlin during the cold war. VG+.
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Düsseldorf: Städtische Kunsthalle, 1986
10.5 x 21cm, gold on black typographic announcement card for Byar's solo show. On the reverse there are announcements for a Beuys posthumous exhibition and for Bruno Goller. VG+.
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NYC: John Gibson Gallery, 1986
10.5 x 15cm 2pp. Announcement card for a posthumous show which took place only 9 months after the artist's sudden death. Image on the front of a Beuys performing Titus Andronicus/Iphigenie aktion (with a live horse) in 1969. A unmailed copy -VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1986
3.1 x 13.3cm, 4pp Artist's card printed black and red on white - the word MARAT is extended to MARATAPLAN! Tthe typography and colour changes emphasis the "rataplan!" which is onomatopoeia - the sound of a drumbeat. The open card causes the neologism MARATAPLAN! to be a clarion call for the ideologue Marat. VG+.
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Paris: Association Francaíse d`Action Artistiqu, 1986
19.5 x 13cm, 256pp plus wrappers. First edition of this artist's book published during the 42e Biennale de Venise. There are 110 b/w images of various faces taken from Boltanski's collection of found portraits and group shots which are presented without any background information at all although they were all exhibited in the associated exhibition in Venice in the usual manner of the artist (with lights and various trappings of religious monuments). There is a preface in French, English and Italian by Suzanne Pagé. Slight faint stains on front cover else VG+. Scarce.
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N.p. (Glasgow?): n.p. (Hughson Gallery), 1986
15 x 10.5cm, 2pp. Gallery issued postcard (who represented Margot Sandeman) with a reproduction of a painting by the artist based on a poem / "definition work" by her friend, and oft collaborator, Finlay. Each of the 11 painted works had Finlay's original hand-typed poem glued onto the canvas and Finlay later signed all the works on the back of the canvass to given them the status of a work by himself as a collaborator. There were 11 such paintings made.
The definition here reads:
SHEAF, n. a bouquet of corn, grasses, wild flowers etc in the likeness of a torch.
These works were forgotten about until a visit to Sandeman by Paul Robertson in c. 2008 brought them to his notice. Sandeman agreed to exhibit the works at Robertson's gallery and to produce an artist's book together reproducing the works. However within a week of Robertson's visit Richard Demarco found out about the paintings via his assistant who had also visited Sandeman and Demarco went to the artist (who he had known for many years) and took the works away with him when he left. Robertson was not able to exhibit them or publish the book. They were later exhibited posthumously to Sandeman's sad death at Summerhall by Demarco - ironically at a time when Robertson was the visual arts curator for the building.
VG+ - an unknown artist's card presumably because it was not published with Finlay's knowledge. Very scarce.
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