Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1975) 15 x 15.cm, brown on white ceramic tile with a drawing by Ron Costley of a sailing boat and the text: "ELEGY FOR "WHIMBREL" AND "PETREL" PETROL" around the outside. One of only 100 made. Very scarce object multiple....
Bruxelles: Palais des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles, 1975
30 x 21.5cm, 30pp plus card covers. Exhibition catalogue for a group show with the participation of Ben, Buren, Erro, Filliou, Pfeuger, Le Gac, Monory and others as well as Boltanski. Texts in German and French. Strangely the essays have reproduced works by non-exhibiting artists and none by the actual 12 artists. VG+.
JOINT WITH:
Bruxelles: Palais des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles, 1975
Four, 30 x 21cm, 1pp - the textual only gallery handout for the exhibition....
Dunsyre, Lanark: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1975
15.2 x 10cm, 30pp plus printed wrappers. Woodcuts by Martin Fidler are mostly visual puns using simple blocks of red and green along with word poems by Finlay. An aircraft carrier has its planes inside the hull in red - Finlay just places the single word PIP under them comparing the carrier to a gourd or shell. Another boat is called a "Sabot" which is based on the shape like an upturned clog. A submarine is "Bubbles".
VG+.
...
Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1975.
15.2 x 20cm, 2pp. A photograph of a garden stone plaque with Albert Durer's well known monogram. Title of the work is after Durer's famous watercolour painting "The Great Piece of Turf" from 1503 which shows a bunch of wild flowers. The placing of the plaque is like most sitings in Stonypath (now Little Sparta) great considered and the photograph shows how it is next to a group of uncultured wild plants. Photo by Michael McQueen, the sculpture who worked to Finlay's instruction was John Andrew. This was the first of three cards which all show garden scenes. VG+.
...
Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1975
12.8 x 10.2cm, 16pp. Original card covers and dust jacket with title and drawing. Artist's book comprising a series of question and answers - a supposed "test" to see if the applicant can be a Panzer leader. The answers are not supplied. Drawing of tanks in landscapes by Laurie Clark. This has a small stain top left on the dj - else VG. one of the harder Finlay books to find..
...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1975
11.2 x 15.2 cm, 6pp printed folder content of one 1pp printed card with three attached metal paper clips. The clips are placed into diecut slots to make the drawing of the tanker looking like it has a larger load (the paper clips resemble the metallic twists of a trombone. An unusual object multiple. VG+.
...
Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1975.
10.5 x 15cm, 2pp. The last of a series of "National Flags" created by Finlay - here a blank, white rectangle represents purity and perfection - hence the flag of a utopia. VG+.
...
Stoneypath): Wild Hawthorne Press, 1975
19 x 28 cm. board war game for two players consisting of playing board, die cut counters and printed instructions. Fine copy of this rare work. Still in original plastic wallet and unusually here with mimeographed order form - black on pink 80gsm uncoated stock A4, folded to DL size as for mailing. This example has never been played - the die cut counters are still in their original card mouldings. Finlay's interest in the WWII war in the Pacific as metaphor led to the production of this unusual artist's game.
JOINT WITH:<BR<
Original cardboard mailer with rubber stamp impression "Pacific The non-scale Wargame". VG+.
Finlay apparently believed that Pacific could be a successful and financially beneficial game but sadly that did not happen.
...
Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1975.
10.5 x 15cm, 2pp. The last of a series of "National Flags" created by Finlay - here the red flag (of war) has three tanks (rampant?) on it. In myth Viking warriors either go to Valhalla (a vast feasting hall overseen by Odin) upon death, or the fields of Fólkvangr hence this fictitious nation is warlike and requires such an angry flag. VG+.
...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1975
49.7 x 36cm, olive green and black on white screenprint. The line drawing by Ron Costley is a copy of the outline of the original Bernini sculpture of the gods.
There is a text beneath the image: ‘APOLLO AND DAPHNE/ after Bernini/BIBLIOGRAPHY - Ovid, “Metamorphoses”; Rudolf Wittkower, “The Sculptures of Gian Lorenzo Bernini”; Historical Research Unit, Vol. 6, “Uniforms of the SS”’.
The classical story of the pair is one of desire - Apollo being consumed by lust for Daphne (thanks to Eros messing with his motivation) and Daphne desiring to remain chaste (Again this is down to Eros). When Apollo did manage to catch Daphne (presumably with rape his intent) Daphne's father Peneus turned her into an laurel tree - hence saving her virginity.
The Tate Gallery website claims Finlay explained that "the gods and nature ‘were behaving not unlike the Waffen SS’ (who were the first to use a smock with a leaf camouflage pattern, hence its identification with them). This image, in which Daphne is wearing a camouflage smock which replaces ‘nature’, was used as the poster for the exhibition ‘Ian Hamilton Finlay: Collaborations’ at Kettle's Yard, Cambridge, 1977."
One of 300 such prints issued by the press as a limited printed edition. Fine.
...
Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1975
9.9 x 22.5cm, 4pp Folding card printed only on the inside. Left and right respectively are found:
TEA-KETTLE-DRUM and WATER - LILY - CUP
in a slightly archaic font. The colours of the words alternative black and russet red.
The two groups of three words are able to be combined in any three ways - on the left it can be Tea kettle, Tea drum (a place to store tea) and Kettle drum (a type of drum) on the right Water lily, Water cup and Lily cup (a part of the flower). Additionally the complex words Tea kettle drum and Water Lily cup are in themselves things and have a visual resemblance to each other.
Finally it may be that the mention of the drum recalls the French Revolutionary Army and Bara, the martyred drum boy. The French crown was long associated by the fleur-de-li, a lily. And of course the head of the king (lily cup) was removed when he was legally murdered by the new Republic.
Simple and complex like the best of Finlay and ultimately a "text visual" as opposed to a "visual poem".
...
Zagreb: GalerieSuvremene Umjetnosti, 1975 21 x 20cm, 18pp plus white card covers. Artist's book issued during a show in Croatia where the "4 Saynetes Comiques Interpretees par Christian Boltansi" are reproduced in b/w and a short forward in Croatian. VG+. Very hard to find. ...