London: Arts Council of Great Britain/Serpentine Gallery, 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 was later exhibited in Wales and used the same poster design. Formerly folded else VG.
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Zurich: Galerie Stahli, n.d. (1978)
30 x 21cm, 1pp promotional leaflet for the portfolio of "Sand Drawings" where Beuys drew directly on the sand on a beach and Wilp took photographs of the works. Issued in only 250 examples with a vial of the sand, four images in b/w are reproduced. Folded for mailing else VG+.
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Dusseldorf: Museum dees Geldes, 1978 10.5 x 21cm, 1pp typographic announcement card for a wide ranging show of surrealism, conceptual art, and primitive art which included Beuys, Reutersward, Kienholz and Klaus Staeck. The card has a blue rubber stamp impression for the Free International University and signed signed by Beuys in red ink. VG+. ...
Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1978
10.5 x 15cm, 1pp. A drawing of a tank in camouflage and in vegetation by John Borg Manduca is overprinted with a jokey "reply card text". The options are:
Thank you for your communication
You will be hearing from us shortly
You are not the only big shot around here
We are getting your range.
Humorous of course, but also a hint at Finlay's combative and defensive view of the world (although the major battles lay ahead in 1980) but by now he had already had a legal battle with Fulcrum Press (which was bankrupted over the issue) and had pulled his work from a Scottish Arts Council show in this same year when he felt insufficiently supported by them. VG+
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Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1978)
5.1 x 7.7cm, 1pp. A fake Erratum slip for the Arts Council of Great Britain where Finlay suggests in their publication - for "mind" read "void". A rather nasty little dig in revenge for what Finlay regarded as a slight when full ACGB support was not given to him in his various battles. VG+
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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...