10 Nov

Posted at 15:28h in Joseph Beuys Postcards

Frankfurt: Frankfurter Kunstverein, 1978
21 x 30cm, 2pp announcement leaflet for a group show of works and videos by Beuys, Joan Jonas, Rebecca Horn, Gerald Domenig, Nicole van den Plas, Christian Hanussek, Peter Scheich, Jorg Frank and others. On the reverse there is a graphic by Ben Vautier for a Fluxus Concert with works from Brecht, Paik, Higgins, Beuys,, Knowles, Filliou, Page, Koepcke, Jones, Andersen, Vostell, Young, Shiomi, and others performed by Ben. This example is signed in red felt tipped pen by Beuys with a blue Haupstrom rubber stamp impression over a photograph of an empty gallery space. VG+.

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10 Nov

Posted at 07:52h in Artist's Postcards

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1978
15 x 10.5cm, 2pp. A list of the latin names of trees all of which share a U in their names are placed one above the other such that a descending line of the letter can be seen (printed in black to highlight it further). Above the text instructs the reader to "play: cover tall the letters except U, using the index finger of each hand."
The "U"s create the fictional flute representing holes - a clear reference to the classical Pan and his pipes. The rest of the card is printed in lime green - again a symbol of vegetation and nature.
this card has been later signed in green ink on the back "Ian Hamilton Finlay 15.4.83". VG+.

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15 Oct

Posted at 08:15h in Artist's Postcards

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1978
16.7 x 12.8cm, 2pp. Two drawings by Hincks of the Handley Page Heyford bomber (which was in service in the 1930s in the UK) and an English Hay-Barge are placed one above each other to create an equivalence. As well as the names being similar there are aspects of both which share a shape - the bomber is very long and has a flat base, and barges by definition tend to have flat bottoms to allow access in shallower rivers. Hincks drawings also use hatching on the hay piled up on the deck, the sails of the boat and fuselage of the plane to again emphasis similarities (and the landscape seen below the plane is also undulating much like the sea under the barge.

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04 Oct

Posted at 08:23h in Artist's Postcards

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1978
15.8 x 3.9cm, 2pp. Black on green card with 5 small uncredited drawings by Gary Hincks the first four boats being above the word Leaf and the last ship above Bark. The card obviously references the structure of a tree but the first four "leaves" are smaller boats and the last one a Barque (aka Bark). Arguably like other bookmarks this could be placed as an object multiple but we have decided to keep it in this section because of previous classifications as a card by Murray and other catalogue raisonnes. VG+.

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01 Oct

Posted at 08:28h in Artist's Postcards

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1978
14.8 x 12.2cm, 2pp. Black on cream card with six drawings by Gary Hincks of patterns which may be camouflage or just abstract drawings from leaves and vegetation.
The card is subtitled HOMAGE TO WILLIAM EMPSON who was a majorly influential critic and theorist in poetry circles of the 1930s. His book "Seven Types of Ambiguity" argued that if a word in a poem could have more than one meaning then that poem could also be read in more than one manner.
There are seven drawings here (the last two are half of the size of the others) and all could be regarded as 'ambiguous' (as one might argue all camouflage is) hence this is in some manner a visual analogue of the theories of the critic.
VG+.

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26 Sep

Posted at 16:16h in Exhibition & Other Posters

Cardiff: Arts Council of Great Britain, 1978
58 x 41cm, three colour offset lithographic exhibition poster with a reproduction of a work "Of famous arcady ye are" - a tank hiding in greenery: a favourite Finlay trope, here with a quotation from John Milton. This was an exhibition that had previously been in London the year before. Formerly folded else VG.

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20 Sep

Posted at 09:02h in Artist's Postcards

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1978
9.6 x 14cm, 2pp. Black on white card with a photograph of a German tank in what appears to be a snowy Russia. A soldier lies slumped over the turret, dead.
Another of Finlay's momento mori works - the title directly references the famous painting "ET IN ARCADIA EGO" but the text is in German. A sub heading by Finlay on the back of the card adds: "Things were even worse than this in Arcady...

20 Aug

Posted at 09:12h in Artist's Postcards

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1978
9.6 x 13.8cm, 2pp. Black on white card with an entirely typographic design on the front -
10. Counter Argument: yes it can.
On the reverse Finlay notes a report: "A project for the Expansion of the Administrative Centre of Lower Austria in Vienna." by Hans Buchwald, Wolfgang Felix Knoll and Jurgen Brenner. Stuttgart 1977." Obviously the text on the front comes from or relates to that report but we cannot find any reference to the contents or context. For now this car will remain a mystery other than being somewhat a dogmatic way of winning an argument..

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09 Aug

Posted at 09:19h in Artist's Postcards

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1978
9.6 x 13.8cm, 2pp. Black on white card with a quotation from "A Handbook of Sailing Barges" which states that:
PERSEVERE, stripped of her gear and relying on power alone."
The sentence refers to a boat being unable to move mechanically - but also the alternative meaning that perseverance is relying on oneself.

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30 Jul

Posted at 10:47h in Prints + Posters

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1978
20 x 16.4cm, printed black on cream outer folder content of a single 20 x 16.4cm offset lithograph on light blue paper.
The folder has "BOIS D'AMOUR. ('LE TALISMAN')" printed at the top and the inner sheet has "Lavender Water" printed at the bottom. On the back of the folder there is also the mention that the work is "An "Homage to Sérusier."
Paul Sérusier was an abstract French painter (who was a pioneer of abstract art and an inspiration for the avant-garde Nabis movement who Finlay honours elsewhere in his works) painted a major work known as "Le Talisman" in 1888 that showed a bridge crossing into a wood. That painting is usually regarded as the first of the Nabis works. The French title of the work is "Paysage au Bois d'Amour" - hence the title of Finlay's work here.
The words Lavender Water found on the second sheet are not only associated with an over-sweet smelling perfume much beloved of old ladies but is also the colour of the water under the bridge in the Serusier painting.
This was the second of Finlay's "colour paper" works (a term we have coined to categorise these innovative works) after his earlier L'embarquement pour l'Ile de Cychere of 1975. VG+>

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26 Jul

Posted at 19:01h in Prints + Posters

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1978) 38 × 47.3cm, blue and black on white screen print showing a harbour at evening time by Gary Hincks in the style of pointillisme (perhaps even Seurat). The work is subtitled "in familiar mottle camouflage" - which is a humorous comment on the style and wartime attempts at disguising ships. VG condition.

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18 Jul

Posted at 14:52h in Artist's Books

Firenze: Zona, n.d. (1978)
21 x 15cm, 4pp (self cover) no binding. The four sheets with calligraphy by Ron Costley read:
white & bark, black & light, bark & light, white & dark and black& white
The combinations of the words (with the basic structure taken from the last coupling "black and white") along with the title "Woods" create visual images of different woodland scenes (each, of course, will be personal to the reader but in the main bark and light may bring the outside of a Birch tree to mind for instance). Finlay uses this trick of word transposition often in works - the changes causes by minimal alterations to words and their syntax interests him greatly. He feels that small changes in letters or word-combination causes large changes to their meaning or their perceived meaning.
This was published by Maurizio Nannucci of Zona Archives, himself a concrete poet. VG+.

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