14 May

Posted at 10:23h in EPHEMERA

Munchen: Kunstverein Munchen, 1986
15 x 10.5cm, 2pp full colour announcement card with an image from the shadow play installation on the front and verso museum details. The title "LECON DES TENEBRES." translates to "LESSON OF DARKNESS' and the work with its strong lighting and deeply black shadows and grotesque images - which are expanded in size because of the projection on to a wall - is a little unsettling.
Like other installations Boltanski allows the guts of the simple projection techniques to be seen - the lights are modern halogens, the cables are left exposed, the hand made puppets and shapes can be seen as well as their projections behind them. The artificiality is on show.
One might muse as to Plato's allegory of the cave as an influence or a metaphor for unknowing - but we will do that elsewhere. VG+.

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04 May

Posted at 17:14h in Joseph Beuys Postcards

Utrecht: Hedensaagse Kunst, 1986 15 x 10.5cm, 1pp announcement card for a show that took place very soon (May 1986) after the artist's sudden death from a heart attack. One b/w photograph of the Manresa aktion from 1966 on the front (taken by Ute Klophais), verso gallery details. VG+....

04 May

Posted at 16:58h in Joseph Beuys Postcards

Utrecht: Hedensaagse Kunst, 1986 15 x 10.5cm, 1pp announcement card for a show that took place very soon (May 1986) after the artist's sudden death from a heart attack. One b/w photograph of Beuys looking at the installation Kreuzaktion from 1969 on the front (taken by Bernd Jansen), verso gallery details. VG+....

25 Apr

Posted at 13:23h in Unique Works

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1986
Folded empty DL manilla envelope with black rubber stamp impression with the text: "THE FACTS IN THE CASE OF IAN HAMILTON FINLAY".
This was an original small work sent by Finlay to Peter Townsend. It is a comment on Finlay's fight with Catherine Millet who bizarrely and wrongly accused Finlay of being an anti-semite. The envelope of course had no facts inside it - which was Finlay's view of his accuser's arguments. Unique thus. We presume other such envelopes were created given that Finlay had the rubber stamp made but we have never seen another example.

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21 Apr

Posted at 22:02h in Letters + Documents

Little Sparta: Finlay, n.d. (1986)
Standard hand addressed DL manilla postal envelope notable for many red and blue rubber stamp impression added by Finlay to the front and the back. Sent as a gift to the editor of Art Monthly, Peter Townsend (not the musician). JOINT: 15 x 21cm, black ink on paper - with a handwritten note to Townsend: "A little medley of "insulting" war stamps. Evidently authoritarians are people of very delicate sensibilities and very little capacity to read and think.". VG.
JOINT:
A standard mailing envelope hand addressed to The Editor Art Monthly by Finlay and rubber stamped with "The peopole has a right to rigorous bureaucracy.". Opened neatly.

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20 Apr

Posted at 20:22h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1986
11 x 9cm, 20pp plus overside printed card wrappers. Quotations from Hereclitus are used to illuminate the missile attack on HMS Sheffield on 4 May 1982. The classical words all regard the transformation of water and air into fire - which ends with the quote "Exocet steers all." which is the line about Zeus - "Lightning steers all" but with the name of the missile replacing the God's weapon of choice. Finally a polarised image of the horrific attack on the warship is reproduced in b/w. VG+.

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20 Mar

Posted at 17:51h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1986
7.6 x 8cm, printed outer folder content of six 7.6 x 8cm, 1pp cards. Each card has a drawing of a guillotine blade by Hincks with a quotation on it such as:
"The government of the Revolution is the despotism of liberty against tyranny. Terror is an emanation of virtue."
by Robespierre. Other quotes are from Denis Diderot, Nicolas Poussin and from Finlay himself who writes:
"Terror is the piety of the Revolution".
Finlay saw The Terror as in some sense pure - which was not an acceptance of the acts of the despots but a metaphysical impression of the firm beliefs of the Terrorists as being virtuous. The guillotine is often an image used in Finlay's works that stands for that purity as well as the fear and evil of man. VG+.
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20 Mar

Posted at 13:43h in EXHIBITION CATALOGUES

Nice: Galerie des Ponchettes, 1986
28 x 21.7cm, 36pp plus card covers and dustjacket. Exhibition catalogue for an exhibition of shadow works (Les Ombres), Les Silhouettes (images of cheaply made cardboard dolls), and the comic performance works (Les Theatres). Images of works in b/w and colour. Essays in French by Jacques Ohhayon and Fumi Yosano. VG+.

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20 Mar

Posted at 12:18h in James Lee Byars

Byars, James Lee THE PHILOSOPHICAL PALACE. 1986. Düsseldorf: Städtische Kunsthalle, 1986 26 x 18cm, gold cardboard slipcase content of a 25.5 x 17.5cm, 148pp book with gold embossed black boards. Exhibition catalogue for the "James Lee Byars, Palace of Philosophy” exhibition. Texts in English and German. Illustrated throughout in colour and b/w. Fine. INSERTED Byars, James Lee THE SPINNING ORACLE….. N.p. (Dusseldorf): n.p., n.d.d (1986) 30 x 21cm, 2pp. Gold on black printed text in Byars’ facsimile hand on one side and a text in German (printed in a typographic font) on the other. Folded with two horizontal creases. Scarce ephemera / print....

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