25 Nov

Posted at 09:56h in ARTIST’S BOOKS

Devon: Beau Geste Press, Nov. 1975. 30 x 21cm, 98pp. + pasted in booklet by Ben Vautier "Me Ben I Sign". 133 illustrations. Flip-flop perfect bound wrappers with pasted-on pictorial design (front and back - as is the pagination - creating the illusion of two back-to-back books). An especially noteworthy issue with pagework contributions by Filliou, Vautier (beyond the booklet), J.C. Lambert, Marcel Broodthaers, et. al. Issued in an edition of only 550 examples.
Christian Boltanski's contribution is a reprint of the pages from his second artist's second published book Description de Mon Accident from 1969.

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18 Nov

Posted at 15:50h in Joseph Beuys Postcards

Bonn: Galerie Klein, 1975 10.4 x 14.8cm, 2pp announcement card designed by Beuys for group show celebrating 5 years of Galerie Klein's activities. gallery’s activities. Beuys's reproduced holograph in blue lists the artists included in the show, namely: Joseph Beuys,Michael von Biel, Raimund Görke, Gotthard Graubner, Sol LeWitt , Klaus Mettig, Sigmar Polke and Fred Sandback. Verso gallery details printed in blue. VG+. ...

11 Nov

Posted at 16:41h in Letters + Documents

Little Sparta: Finlay, 11 November 1975.
21 x 18cm, 2pp (both recto) original typed letter on white letter head note paper (PAN incorporating PICK) which is hand signed at the end in ink by Finlay. A letter to Carlton Williers- which firstly explains the PAN letterhead - "so far as I know I am the only Scottish Garden Poet and the letterhead is just to keep me company".
Willers (of Philadelphia) was a known collector of art and a friend and one-time lover of Andy Warhol.
Finlay then thanks Willers for his "kind letter: and happily agree to let him stock the press' publication. Finlay bemoans the lack of a new York outlet for his work and he hopes Willers might make a difference.
Finlay points out that the Press now has a much greater inventory of printed material and encloses some lists of available works as well as pushing the medallions and ceramic tiles - "People rarely buy the tiles from the list and rarely fail to buy them if they actually see them.)"
A 33% trade discount is offered and there is a short discussion on how many US bookshops had cheated Finlay by "simply not paying"

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04 Nov

Posted at 11:06h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1975)
11.8x 15.1cm, 2pp artist postcard with a reproduced painting by Manduca of an air craft carrier. J. M. (Edmund John Millington) Synge was an Irish playwright, poet, writer, collector of folklore, and a key figure in the Irish Literary Revival who wrote the bleak and realitic play The Playboy of the Western World. VG+. ...

31 Oct

Posted at 19:57h in ARTIST’S BOOKS

Bruxelles: Palais des Beaux Arts, 1975
21 x 29cm, 32pp plus card covers. First edition, with black tape spine, of this artist's book which displays the various comic performances by Boltanski where he pretended to be various parental and authority figures in a child's life and common scenes relating to those figures - additionally the artist had painted various backgrounds for each scene. Twenty-two b/w images reproduced in the book, two per page. The performances were Le baiser honteux, La premiere communion, La visite du docteur, L'anniversaire, La toilete du matin. Two b/w images of the artist on every page. The book was published on the occasion of the exhibition "12 x 1, Une certaine actualite de l'art contemporain en France," held at Europalia 75, France, October - November 1975. Slight damage to the black spine tape else VG+.

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25 Oct

Posted at 21:13h in Prints + Posters

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press 1975
74.9 × 36.8cm, light brown on white silkscreen on thick paper. The drawing by Ron Costley (from Finlay's instruction) is in faux Roman lettering - an attractive typography which has under the first word a drawing that doubles as both a symbolic sundial and a female vaginal mound. Venus, of course, was the goddess of love (sex) - and the shape of the gnomon and its shadows creates a capital "V" to again symbolise the female sex symbol.
One of c. 300 printed - this has slight marks in the margins but is overall VG. Scarce item.

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21 Oct

Posted at 09:37h in PRINTS

Pesaro: Franca Mancini, 1975.
68 x 89.7cm. Photolithography on thick paper, signed and numbered by Boltanski. A rare print-multiple by Boltanski. These are re-workings adapted from his important Saynetes Comiques series of exaggerated poses - here the artist is angry. Each print was uniquely hand-coloured. Issued in an edition of only 100 examples hand-signed and numbered by the artist. Fine estate in wood and glass frame.

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18 Oct

Posted at 18:25h in Artist's Books

Dunsyre, Lanark: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1975
11 x 11.2cm, 16pp (self cover). Drawings of tanks and war planes by Alexander Finlay (later Alex Finlay) from when he was young with short text works by Finlay that reflect the imagery.
Nocturne has a drawing of a man parachuting from a plane - Finlay's text shows the words "schräge musik" with two dots being repeated op the page diagonally. Schräge Musik was the German term for an autocannon that the Luftwaffe mounted in fighters but was also the contemporary German colloquialism for shaky, off-tune music ie slanted or oblique music. The slant of the text reflects that origin as a well as the way the bullets tragectory.
A very scarce Finlay book and charming in the way his son was involved in the production. Later Alex Finlay would publish many books - we think this was his first. VG+. ...

15 Oct

Posted at 19:54h in Artist's Postcards

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1975.
20 x 15.2cm, 2pp. A photograph of an installation in the Stonypath (later Little Sparta) of a ground stone that reads "See POUSSIN, Hear LORRAINE." in front of a small lake. Both names are painters, the first tending to paint arcadian scenes, the other views of rivers and sea ports. Photo by Michael McQueen, the sculpture who worked to Finlay's instruction was John Andrew. VG+. ...

09 Oct

Posted at 12:35h in Prints + Posters

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1975
58.5 x 48.5cm, blue on white silkscreen. The image is of a number of airplanes with their wings raised (as found in the belly of an aircraft carrier) so to allow them to be placed more closely to each other. Finlay by adding the title Lullaby indicates that these planes might be seen as somehow sleeping - and the visual image reminds one of young birds in a nest. Hence this is a visual poem - the image having double meanings and hinting at subtle meanings.
The image we have used here is from a publication - the print we hold is framed in wood and glass and hard to image without reflections - but the work is in VG+ condition.

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