23 Jul

Posted at 20:21h in Photographs

Peninsula: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1985
50 x 40cm, silver gelatine print. The photograph of the stream by Robin Gillanders is combined with a short poem by Finlay.

the brown stream
the black stream
the blue stream
the silver stream

The same phrase is repeated with only the colour changing each time. Gillander's photograph is in b/w so one might imagine it in different colours as per the poem - and the water having a different history each time - silver being related to fish or speed, blue in reflections or the sea, black from coal or dirt or darkness and brown from pollution or soil.
This edition is from a portfolio called ‘Dear Stieglitz,’ named in homage to Alfred Stieglitz, the photographer and gallery owner who published the art-photography journal ‘Camera Work’ in the early Twentieth century.
On the reverse is a label with details of the portfolio and image and it is signed by Finlay and numbered in pencil from the edition of only 35 copies. VG+.

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07 Jul

Posted at 10:45h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1985
10.2 x 24.6cm, 1pp red on white card. The text reads: "FEWER SCULPTURES! MORE STATUES! LIVE AMMUNITION IN COMMUNITY ARTS!"
Clearly a provocation in response to events and Finlay's turning to opposing the council and his other enemies with verbal aggressions. VG+.

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06 Jul

Posted at 18:35h in PHOTOGRAPHS

NYC: n.p., 1985
5 x 5cm, colour transparency with an image of the Boltanski installation "Monument" from 1985. Handwritten legend on the plastic - a slide provided by a gallery to press or clients. VG+.

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24 Jun

Posted at 13:10h in Photographs

40.5 x 30.5cm, b/w silver gelatine original photograph of Finlay in front of one of his French revolution inspired sculpture "TERROR IS THE PIETY OF THE REVOLUTION". This was the portrait of Finlay taken by Christopher Barker for his book on British Poets. The correspondence between Finlay and Barker arranging the photo-shoot (Finlay agreed but did not enjoy the experience) is online on this site in the letters section. Sadly this print has a big paper lack bottom right on it but thankfully what is lost is a bit of the stonewall work. else Vg. Probably not unique but not many printed at the time.

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20 Jun

Posted at 15:42h in Joseph Beuys Cards 1980 - 23rd January 1986, Joseph Beuys Cards 1980s, Joseph Beuys Postcards

Heidelberg: Edition Staeck, 1985 10.5 x 15cm, 2pp artist's postcard with a reproduced photograph by Zoa (Brigitte Muller-Fehn) showing Beuy's Kassel 1982 action when he melted down a golden crown (representative of the old order) and transformed it into a golden hare and a sun sphere. The resultant sculpture was later sold to raise funds for the 7,000 Oaks project. The front of the card has a gold foil stamping on it also. Issued as part of the Originalgrafik Series D. VG+. ...

05 Jun

Posted at 18:34h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1985
5.8 x 20.5cm, 1pp card printed black and red on cream with a drawing of a machine gun by Ron Costley which has holes in the barrel (to prevent over heating). Finlay has used this motif in prints and elsewhere to reflect the pan-pipes of the god Apollo.
Additional are several epigrams from the poet's "More Detached Sentences" (on gardening) and a note: "Owing to practical necessities of Little Sparta's War with Strathclyde Region, the Garden and Garden Temple are presently closed to the public. The provisional government of Little Sparta is revolutionary until the peace.".
This card is dated 1986 in both the flawed Murray Catalogue Raisonne and the Wild Hawthorn Press' own online listing of artist's cards - it is however clearly 1985 - not only printed on the card but additionally this example is hand addressed by Finlay to Harry Warschauer (and with a red rubber stamp impression - STRATHCLYDE REGION DER UNTERGANG DES ABENDLANDES) and the franking to the stamp is clearly dated "5 June 1985". We have restored this item to the correct date in this catalogue. VG+.

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02 Jun

Posted at 18:09h in Letters + Documents

Little Sparta: s.p (Finlay), n.d. (c. 1985) 30 x 21cm, 1pp offset sheet with a text by Finlay regarding a proposed "Free Arts scheme": essentially a method by which potential buyers of art can make regular advance payments to a bank account. The proposal did not take place. Staple top left is a little rusty and the additional pages to which it was originally attached (a xerox of a letter to Christopher Macintosh) is catalogued separately here as the two documents were not related. VG+....

16 May

Posted at 15:05h in Joseph Beuys Cards 1980 - 23rd January 1986, Joseph Beuys Cards 1980s, Joseph Beuys Postcards

Ahrensberg-Wulfsdorf: Haus de Natur, 1985
9.5 x 21cm, 4pp announcement card with a b/w image of Umseitig (a photograph of a nesting dove with overpainted stamp) on the front. A group show with works from Beuys, Robert Filliou, Lili Fischer, Ilse and Pierre Garnier, Marianne Greve, Heiko Hofmann, Georg Jappe, Tonia Kudrass, Klaus Staeck and Manfred Wigger. This example is signed in red felt tipped pen by Beuys over the image. Internally museum details. VG+.

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07 May

Posted at 10:49h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1985
21 x 21cm (unfolded), 2pp red on white card. The text "EVERY GOAL NEGATES" comes from the German atheist philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach in his book 'Thoughts on Death and Immortality' - in full it is 'Every goal negates; where there is no destruction, no negation and sacrifice of independent existence, there is no purpose." - emphasising the role of destruction and loss in the world.
Here Finlay has made this into a paper dart which is a weapon of sorts carrying Feuerbach's message to the person hit by the paper. VG+.

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23 Apr

Posted at 20:10h in Prints + Posters

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1985
42 × 32.1cm, red and black silkscreen on cream paper. A diagram that can be cut out and formed into a Corinthian capital for a column (drawn by Nicholas Stone). On the diagram there is a definition: "CAPITAL n. a republican crown."
A republic is a state without a king - hence it would not have a crown. The Corinthian capitals (also known as orders) is the last developed of the three principal classical orders of ancient Greek and Roman architecture and hence regarded as the most advanced - and it was also the most ornate (somewhat like a bejewelled crown). There is a tension in this work by Finlay that is never quite resolved. Perhaps the other meanings of capital are also important here - as the uppercase beginning letter of a sentence and/or the city in which the government (perhaps a republican governement) is based. Fine condition.

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