paul robertson, Author at Unoriginal Sins

21 May LAND / SEA. 1967.

Posted at 21:01h in Prints + Posters

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1967
42.5 x 56cm, blue/green and brown silkscreen on white paper. A key to the work is bottom left with the blue/green horizontal lines being sea and the brown diagonal lines being land. Together a lattice or net is formed. Other works including unique etched glass works take up this theme of interrelationships and it is tempting to see correspondences with some of the sundial works. The Tate claims 400 of these were printed but one can never rely on those numbers as Finlay appears to have been inconsistent (it is more usually claimed he printed 350 of most items). Murray 5.11.

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18 May OCEAN STRIPE 5. 1967.

Posted at 21:31h in Artist's Books

Nottingham: Tarasque Press, n.d. (1967)
20.2 x 16.6cm, 32pp. Original card wrappers and a pictorial dust jacket with an image of a seascape. This artist's book (one of the few by Finlay not published by the Wild Hawthorn Press) places quotations taken from essays on phonic poetry by Ernst Jandl, Paul de Vree, and Kurt Schwitters alongside photographic images of boats (taken from the trade publication Fishing News). Importantly each boat's registration letters can be seen. As a "postscript: there is a sound poem written by Schwitters which is made up of letters very similar in combination to those of the fishing boat registrations which is the point of Finlay's book.
"The basic material is not the word but the letter." is one of the quotes chosen by Finlay to reproduce,.

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15 May POTH (POOR OLD TIRED HORSE) NR 23 DESIGNATED AS “TEAPOTH 23”. 1967. DESIGNED BY JOHN FURNIVAL.

Posted at 16:31h in Poor Old Tired Horse + Broadsides

Stoneypath; Wild Hawthorne Press, 1967
26 x 21cm, 12pp. The twenty-third number of Finlay’s poetry publication - here designed by John Furnival and contributions by Max Weber, Theodore Enslin, Pierre Albert-Birot (translated by Stephen Bann),Ian Hamilton Finlay, Eli Siegel, Gael Turnbull, George Mackay Brown, Edwin Morgan, and Ronald Johnson. This number reverting to the more common collection of poems by different artists. VG+ condition. Scarce.

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07 May CARBON COPY OF LETTER FROM M. BERG TO BOLTANSKI. 7 MAY 1967.

Posted at 19:29h in LETTERS AND DOCUMENTS

Copenhague: Berg, 7 Mai 1967
21 x 15cm, 1pp. Original carbon copy of a typed and signed letter from M Berg explaining that he was to publish a novel by a young Danish writer Vagn Lundbye. The letter asks if Ramon might be able to supply a cover illustration. The title of the novel is Morkespil (Game of Shadows).
The story is of soldiers on a raft in the sea trying to survive the elements, attacks from the air and even each other. Berg says that the Ramon Mobilisation image (see elsewhere) that Boltanski sent before would do but Berg would prefer to commission new work. He then points out that there is little time so a quick response would help.

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06 May FREEWHEEL. AN EXHIBITION OF GRAPHICS AND POETRY ORGANISED BBY JOHN FURNIVAL AND DSH. 1967.

Posted at 09:26h in Exhibition Catalogues

Nottingham/Cambridge: Midland Group Gallery/Arts Council Gallery, n.d. (1967) 17.8 x 17.8cm, 12pp plus wrappers with a design by Tony Stokes. Exhibition catalogue for an early visual poetry show (even if Furnival and dsh called it "graphics and poetry". Foreword by dsh. There were works (all listed) by Ken Cox, Furnival, dsh, Hansjorg Mayer, Tom Phillips, and others as well as Finlay who contributed a large number of items.
Firstly the catalogue notes twelve different sculptural works - five of which were toys and, then, Column Poem, 4 Sails (Glass Version), fir/far in sheet metal, wave/rock (in two versions) and arc/arc in both sheet metal and perspex. There are prices - one could buy the works for between £40 and £70 - to which an annotation refers to Finlay saying "and a bargain at that".
Additionally the two large works Finlay exhibited in the Brighton Concrete Poetry show were also here - Sailor's Cross (in wood) and Purse-Net Poem (in sheet metal). Further listed in the show are various formats of Au Pair Girl (with Jon Willcocks) two of which were "perspex version 1" and "photographic version 1" and Ring of Waves with Ann Hildred, Homage with Angela Willard, Net Planet with Sue Hudson and Acrobats (letterpress - in two verstions) with Ann Stevenson. The joint work Finlay did with students from Bath College under Joh Furnival's tutorage was also displayed - Eavelines/headlines.
Looking a tthe other contributions one could easily suggest that the show was mostly Finlay.
It is perhaps worth noting that by this exhibition in 1967 Finlay had clearly entered the world of art in the sense of creating three dimensional recognisable sculptures - his first poems in the concrete format were only 3 years earlier. This is scarce publication and in VG+ condition.

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21 Apr LA BELLE HOLLANDAISE. 1967.

Posted at 21:35h in Prints + Posters

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1967
58 x 43cm, pink and black silkscreen. Concrete poem - one of the earliest Finlay prints. The work is one of a number where Finlay is fascinated by the patches to be found on sails (of both boats and windmills) and also references in its title Picasso's early career portrait of a strapping naked young Dutch woman. The image suggests that one should read the symbol and the word as "Crosspatch" - which is someone easily made upset which strangely one would not take from the semi-smiling woman in the Picasso portrait. But then an unmended sail of either a windmill or a boat would cause the sails to misbehave.
The design was created from Finlay's instructions by Herbert Rosenthal. Murray 5.10

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15 Apr FORM NR 4. 1967.

Posted at 09:19h in Page Works & Contributions

Cambridge: Form Magazine, 1967 24 x 24cm, 32pp plus typographic wrappers. This single number from series of magazines edited by Philip Steadman, Mike Weaver and Stephen Bann - here the fourth number which contains a notes, map and a detailed review of the Brighton Concrete Poetry Exhibition to which Finlay showed two major sculptural works - Sailors' cross and Purse-Net Poem. The former was c. 1.2m high and the latter 2.4 x 1m in side - both collaboraitons with Henry Clyne.
Otherwise there are articles on the Black Mountain College, Albers 'Graphic Tectonics', 'What is Kentetism' ?, two essays by Charles Biederman, poems by Anselm Hollo. a review of Mecano magazine.
This is more of a review of Finlay's contribution to the event rather than actual works included by Finlay but we have decided to place this in the Pageworks & Contributions section of this site because of Finlay's earlier contributions to the same magazine which was after all edited by his friend and often essayist Bann who had curated much of the Brighton show. VG+ example.

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14 Apr SUSSEX OUTLOOK. BRIGHTON FESTIVAL SPECIAL ISSUE. 1967.

Posted at 09:04h in Miscellany

Brighton: Sussex Outlook, 1967
44 x 32cm, 12pp(self cover) - a tabloid newspaper published by students at the University of Sussex, which was a special issue considering the events at the Brighton festival including the double page feature on the concrete poetry exhibition that Finlay figured so prominently in. Two works are repriuced black on white (Cythera and roSY fAr blacK and a lengthy and informed text by Nigel Maslin who quotes Finlay and Bann amongst others. Rare. VG+ although browned a bit over fifty years.

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20 Mar FLUXUS HAUPTSTROM FLUXUS FETTRAUM. 1967.

Posted at 13:06h in Joseph Beuys Postcards

Darmstadt: Franz Dahlem, 1967.
20.5 x 15.5cm, 2pp announcement card for a performance on 20 March 1967 (with Henning Christiansen)of Hauptstrom where the latter played a violin painted green and an exhibition of works by Beuys. The front of the card show the artist during his explaining art to a dead hare aktion of 1965 - but interestingly in a purple and yellow mirrored duotone. A scarce early card. VG+.

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19 Mar THE FILMS OF JUD YALKUT FEATURING SELF-OBLITERATION – UNIQUE 1967 ORIGINAL PASTEUP DESIGN FOR KUSAMA POSTER WITH ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPH OF ARTIST 1967

Posted at 15:51h in Jud Yalkut

30.5 x 22cm, original b/w paste up for this filmic event which showed Yalkut’s famous film of Yayoi Kusama’s orgy works and also mentions “3 NEW FILMS WITH NAM JUNE PAIK”. This is Yalkut’s own design made up of hand-applied white letraset lettering on black paper, typed text and a large original photograph of the Kusama orgy taken by Yalkut. A unique and important item. Fine condition with only a very slight corner bottom right torn off the backing card....

17 Mar SIMULSENSORY CIRCUS PREVIEWS MUSHROOM – 1ST ENVIRONMENT ROCK THEATER. 1967

Posted at 22:37h in Jud Yalkut

Hollywood, FL: Hollywood Sportatorium, 1967 28 x 21.5cm, 1pp b/light green offset leaflet for a performance by the Florida-based group Mushroom. There is no co clear relation to Yalkut, but given it came from his own archive it is likely they screened his John Cage mushroom short. VG. ...

17 Mar THE FILM-MAKERS DISTRIBUTION CENTER PRESENTS THE AWARD-WINNING AMERICAN FILMS OF THE BELGIUM INTERNATIONAL FILM COMPETITION. 1967

Posted at 22:32h in Jud Yalkut

NYC: Film-Makers' Distribution Center, 1967 Two stapled sheets both 28 x 21.5cm, 1pp b/light green offset leaflet for a screening of three films from the Belgium International Festival in December 1967, including Yalkut's portrait of artist Yayoi Kusama, which won the Special Jury Prize. Also screened were Robert Nelson's film of the Grateful Dead and Michael Snow's "Wavelength." There are extensive biographical and filmic details for each of the films on the second sheet....