28 Jan

Posted at 17:42h in Joseph Beuys Cards 1980 - 23rd January 1986, Joseph Beuys Cards 1980s, Joseph Beuys Postcards

Kassel: FIU, n.d. (1985) 21 x 10cm, 12pp (opens to 120 x 21cm). Promotional leaflet for the Beuys installation at Kassel - one side opens to a long poster, the other has five b/w images of Beuys and volunteers planting the oak trees and the final transformation of the urban landscape. Text in German. The brochure has been double stamped over a large image of a mature oak tree with the basalt stones and below which Beuys has signed in pencil. VG+. ...

25 Jan

Posted at 21:49h in Letters + Documents

Little Sparta: Finlay, 25th January 1985
An original vintage xerox 30 x 21cm, 1pp with a round robin letter from Finlay to all of the Saint-Just Vigilantes.
The letter lets the Vigilantes know that the Sheriff Officer had informed Little Sparta that he "has received explicit instructions from Strathclyde Regional Council to proceed with a Sale of the effects earlier removed" from the Garden Temple.
Finlay explains that some of the artworks removed had other owners and were therefore illegally taken. Finlay explains the role of the Scottish Arts Council (a role he is unhappy with) as a potential mediator but notes their failure to take that role. He asks supporters to write to the SAC and others to demand that the illegal sale of works be cancelled and that the "Region be obliged to return to the notion of law."
The letter ends with "Meanwhile, will all Saint-Just Vigilantes who are available for active service at the front, please be in touch with Little Sparta. "Only those who take part in Battles, win them." - Saint-Just.

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20 Jan

Posted at 18:15h in Letters + Documents

Little Sparta: Saint-Just Vigilantes (Finlay), 1985 30 x 21cm, 2pp (recto only) vintage xerox of a letter from Finlay to Christopher MacIntosh noting that the Scottish Arts Council had (after earlier requests) agreed to hear Finlay's case for them to support his actions against the Strathclyde regional Council. Finlay asks MacIntosh as one of the Saint-Just Vigilantes to write to the SAC stating that the latter believes the Garden Temple to be a religious building and to return the letter to Finlay. The letter also has short passages by Finlay where he states clearly his belief that the building is clearly religious in nature and pointing to the equivalence of Apollo and Saint Just as both revolutionary and classical. "A garden may be a paradigm of Revolution since it consists in the shaping, not of an artefact, but of an actual piece of territory." Slight rust around where a staple has been removed in the past else VG. ...

12 Jan

Posted at 19:41h in Joseph Beuys Cards 1980 - 23rd January 1986, Joseph Beuys Cards 1980s, Joseph Beuys Postcards

Bern, Switzerland: Art-Fusion-Edition, 1986 21 x 15cm, 4pp. Announcement/subscription leaflet for the printed documentation of the collaboration initiated by Ueli Fuchser between Joseph Beuys, Kaii Higashiyama, and Andy Warhol where three drawings which were faxed to each other as a pioneering art event using the fax. Three small b/w images of each artist and the cover of the book reproduced on the front. VG+. ...

05 Jan

Posted at 08:15h in Letters + Documents

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1985
23 x 23cm (unfolded size), 2pp sheet of printed paper designed to be folded into a paper airplane shape and thrown.
The text inside: "BEAT THE REDS WITH THE WHITE WEDGE: CORRESPOND!" adapts the Russian revolutionary slogan from the famous painting by Lazar Markovich Lissitzky, suggesting writing letters may be a radical response to the attacks on Little Sparta by the Strathclyde Region. It should be noted that the dart is supposedly published by the "Committee of Public Safety" which was the centralised mechanism by which Robespierre and Saint-Just controlled the Terror of the French revolution. This is a mailed example to Ronnie Duncan with stamp and frank. Murray lists this as a card - which is debatable we have decided to categorise it as a letter/document because of it's intent as a campaigning item. VG+.

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15 Dec

Posted at 17:01h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1984
14 x 9.7cm, 48pp (printed recto only) and printed white wrappers.
Artist's book with 16 quotations from Hagel paired with other classical and modern quotations from Hereclitus, Wittgenstein, Zeno, Coleridge, Pythagorus and Finlay himself. The conjoining of the tests brings new meaning to the Hegelian bon mots. This was a Christmas publication from the Press which was often sent out as gifts to friends and colleagues - this copy has a handwritten dedication "Stuart from Ian as always". VG+.

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12 Dec

Posted at 10:56h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1984
8.8 x 10.2cm , 4pp black and red on white card.
The card lists twelve new names of the months of the year (much like the way the French Revolutionary calendar renamed the year. The names "Month of the Hurricane", "Month of the Snowman" mostly reflect the weather but there are also references to the events of 1793 but one line is printed in festive red "Month of the Pocket Battleship" which one may assume is the month around Christmas (this being a Christmas card). December is hence now the 4th month and a pocket battleship being a toy may be seen as a children's gift.,BR> This example of the card has a relatively long (for a small card) message from Finlay to Stuart (Mills?) "doesn't this card remind you a wee line of Old Times, even if it is not printed in 60's sepia? I thinkI made it especially for you. How are you? That rotten firm never answered my letter about their rotten clockwork boat. Love to all, your chum, Ian. 12.12.84". An insightful short missive. VG+.

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25 Nov

Posted at 20:41h in Proposals

Martock: Parrett Press, 1984 21 x 14.5cm, 16pp plus card covers. String bound. A proposal by Finlay for the artistic improvement of an olive grove at the Villa Celle in Italy. The work, also known as "The Celle Proposal," was created in collaboration with Nicholas Sloan who created the 4 woodcuts and the map of the land and was published by the latter's small press. The proposal includes a brass plough with a text: "The day is old by noon", a bronze tree plaque on an olive tree with "Il flaute d'argento/La scorza rozza" and "La Scorza d'argento/Il flauto rozzo", a wmall circular temple with an inscription "L'ombra medita sulla" and a sculpture in broze of a basket of lemons with "Silence after chatter' and "The astringent is sweet". There is also a small "concise" dictionary at the back of the book with various definition works. This is a very rare book with only 20 copies being printed. There are slight closed tears on the oversize wrappers but over all this is VG+. A delight. ...

14 Nov

Posted at 15:11h in Joseph Beuys Cards 1980 - 23rd January 1986, Joseph Beuys Cards 1980s, Joseph Beuys Postcards

Bonn: Stadtisches Kunstmuseum, 1984
10 x 21cm, 6pp announcement leaflet with a b/w image of Beuys installing Das Ende des 20 Jahrhunderts (1983) in b/w on the front. Internally details of the Beuys show along with two other exhibitions by Oskar Schlemmer and Jans-Peter Adamski. One b/w image of a painting from the museum's permanent collection also. This example is signed in red felt tipped pen by Beuys over the image. VG+.

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