paul robertson, Author at Unoriginal Sins

06 Jun PARTISAN GALLERY HANDOUT. 1963. AN EXHIBITION THAT NEVER TOOK PLACE.

Posted at 13:47h in Poor Old Tired Horse + Broadsides

Edinburgh: Partisan Gallery, 1963 23.7 x 36cm, 1pp, broadside and gallery handout for an exhibition of work by Peter Stitt, printing an original poem each by Ian Hamilton Finlay ("20 - a PS")and Jerome Rothenberg ("Call it Heaven). This is a very early Finlay contribution where he designed the broadside for a gallery that was released for an exhibition of works by Stitt and that was curated by Finlay's then wife Jessie McGuffie (but the opening caused a rift between the gallery owner and McGuffie as the latter had invited some guests who the owner thought crude.) The artist then withdrew his paintings and the show was cancelled. Lists the works exhibited by Stitt, one of which was lent by Finlay. Stitt was subsequently featured by Finlay in Poor Old Tired Horse issues #8 and #9, after which he moved to London. The Finlay poem is one of the very first that can be clearly identified as a concrete poem, it is a typescript where each work or small phrase is linked by lines to create relationships between the words and their positioning on the page and relative to each other. This is an extremely rare and important publication which has a very similar design style to Fish Sheet One but was never widely distributed because of the falling out between McGuffie, Finlay "and the posh lady who owned the gallery" (from a TLS to be found elsewhere in this collection that was sent along with this catalogue). Folded twice for mailing. VG+. ...

15 May POTH (POOR OLD TIRED HORSE) NR 7. 1963. WITH PICTORAL INSERT.

Posted at 11:03h in Poor Old Tired Horse + Broadsides

Edinburgh; Wild Hawthorne Press, 1963
30 x 21cm, 4pp + 1pp insert. The seventh number of Finlay’s poetry publication with contributions by Kurt Schwitters (translated by Lesley Lendrum), Paul Celan (translated by Helmut Bonheim), Robert Creeley, Piero Heliczer, Mario Trufelli (translated by Cid Corman); Andrei Voznesensky (translated by Edwin Morgan), Crombie Saunders, Paul Blackburn, Richard Huelsenbeck (translated by Jerome Rothenberg), Robert Simmons, Hamish McLaren, Bud Neill, Fernano Lemos, and Alexander McNeish. This is a very hard to find early number of this international review - hardly any exist on the open market. This example is VG. BR> The inserted sheet has three images in b/w by Bud Neill and Alexander McNeish as well as the work Drawing by Ferando Lemos which is clearly a visual poem and continues the introduction of such work to the POTH series. Thereafter this number almost all following issues were primarily concerned with such formats rather than traditional poetry structures. BR>...

16 Apr WILD HAWTHORN PRESS PRICE LIST. 1963.

Posted at 20:59h in Miscellany

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1963)
29.4 x 20.4cm, 1pp offset lithographic price list for the Press. Mentions the early publications from the Press and some such as Jonathan William's Lullabies Twisters Gibbers Drags which the Press was the distributor for in the UK. Former fold else VG+....

10 Apr APPROCHES. 1963.

Posted at 18:43h in Page Works & Contributions

Paris: Approchest, n.d. (1963)
20.5 x 13cm, 130pp plus original wrappers. A single number of a poetry journal edited by Julian Blaine and Jean-Francois Bory. The editors were aware of the growing changes in experimental poetry and here one finds Pierre Garnier, Jeff Nuttall, John Furnival, de Campos, de Vree, Blaine and Bory alongside Finlay's BROKEN HEART which can be found in Rapel.
The spine and wrappers here are attached but with tears - a bit fragile but a rare early Finlay international contribution and a sign of his growing reputation amongst his peers. Else VG.

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18 Mar RAPEL / 10 FAUVE AND SUPREMATIST POEMS. 1963.

Posted at 13:56h in Artist's Books

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1963
30 x 21cm, Soft cover. First edition. Cream card folder, front panel and flap at rear printed in black, containing only 11 loose sheets printed on one side only: dedication printed in black, 'a peach an apple' printed in blue, a valentine in green, the practice in black, formal poem in three colours, carousel in two colours. Wrappers and contents in fine condition with the exception of a slight tear on the back right fold. Exceptionally rare very early Finlay visual poetry publication.
This was the first wholly conceived "concrete" poetry book by Finlay and contains some of his best known works (which were later reprinted in anthologies and other Finlay publications as well as in different mediums such as unique glass works.

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12 Mar FORMAL POEM. 1963. ONE OF A SMALL NUMBER OF DIFFERENT SIZED OFFPRINTS.

Posted at 11:17h in Prints + Posters

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1963
26.2 x 21.5cm, 1pp blue, green and yellow silkscreen on white card. A concrete poem by Finlay which was created for the Rappel artist's book however a small number of additional sheets in a different size were released - of which this is one. The words 'deer' and 'tree' are placed in different combinations to create small word pictures with the final image the words are conjoined to make "treed" with ree in green. Very scarce. In VG+ condition....

02 Feb FISH-SHEET ONE. 1963

Posted at 20:57h in Wild Hawthorn Press

Edinburgh: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1963
21 x 30cm. single folded sheet printed with texts by six contributors. Unique number of this precursor to Finlay's revue Poor Old Tired Horse. Issued in broadside format, Fish Sheet One is composed of quasi-concrete poetic experiments by Pete Brown, Spike Hawkins, J.F. Hendry, Anselm Hollo, Edwin Morgan and Finlay. Folded as issued. A very good+ example of this early and quite elusive production of the press. Ref.: Murray 1.3.

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14 Jan LEDLANET NIGHTS EXHIBITION. 1963. FINLAY’S FIRST EVER EXHIBITION.

Posted at 16:59h in Exhibition Catalogues

N.p. (Near Edinburgh): n.p. (John Calder), 1963
26.5 x 10cm, 14pp (one page is half size). Mimeographed with similar card cover. The extremely rare first exhibition catalogue that was Finlay's first show alongside the Cobra artist William Gear and Alexander Trocchi and others. Each artist has a page dedicated to them and Hamilton-Finlay's (sic) test is somewhat amusing - including a reworking of his "Notice - please do not feed the boats." and notes Finlay as the inventor of the "Wold (sic) Hawthorne Airship (banned)."
According to wikipedia: " Ledlanet Nights in Kinrosshire, Scotland, was an arts festival that operated from 1962 for around ten years (...

01 Jan STANDING POEM 1 (PEAR PPEAR APPEAR). 1963.

Posted at 16:40h in Artist's Postcards

Edinburgh; Wild Hawthorne Press, 1963
20 x 28.5cm, green and mustard printed on light brown card. Very rare folding card (three creases to make an irregular standing rectangle) the very first card sculpture by Finlay.
This example also has the original printed mailing envelope and the instruction leaflet showing how to fold the work.
The evolution of the word PEAR to APPEAR is reversed in the DISAPPEAR to PEAR section of the card. Finlay liked the progression of words and images - the similarity of each step to the previous one added layers of meaning. A fruit - a pear - both becomes visible and invisible in turn. Formed (grown) and consumed even. A very rare item especially with the envelope and the leaflet.

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01 Jan LAPPY ISTHMUS FISHES/HAPPY CHRISTMAS WISHES. 1963. (NOT IN ANY CATALOGUE RAISONNE)

Posted at 15:37h in Artist's Postcards

N.p.: s.p. (Finlay), 1963
15.5 x 10cm, 4pp (asymmetric fold). Black on yellow card. One of Finlay’s most early of concrete works, this Xmas card has the two texts printed in such a manner that the overlapping front of the card reads LAPPY ISTHMUS FISHES but when opened HAPPY CHRISTMAS WISHES.
The text references the format of newspaper headlines (which Finlay used in several early postcard and bookworks) and suggests the unlikely idea of circulating fish found near a long strip of land which when opened reveals the season's greetings. This card is not found in any catalogue raisonne and is very rare. This example has a handwritten and signed greeting from Finlay.
15.5 x 10cm, 4pp (asymmetric fold). Black on yellow card. One of Finlay’s most early of concrete works, this Xmas card has the two texts printed in such a manner that the overlapping front of the card reads LAPPY ISTHMUS FISHES but when opened HAPPY CHRISTMAS WISHES.

The text references the format of newspaper headlines (which Finlay used in several early postcard and bookworks) and suggests the unlikely idea of circulating fish found near a long strip of land which when opened reveals the season's greetings. This card is not found in any catalogue raisonne and is very rare. This example has a handwritten and signed greeting from Finlay....

08 Dec SEMI-IDIOTIC POEM. C. 1962. UNUSED PROOF PRINT.

Posted at 22:20h in Miscellany

N.p. (Gloucester?): n.p., n.d. (c. 1962)
33 x 20cm, b/w offset lithograph. A single sheet with Finlay's ‘Semi-idiotic poem’' printed near the bottom Such "coded" works were invented by Décio Pignatari and Luiz Pinto and categorised as being part of a semiotic or code-poem genre. This poem was printed in Poor. Old. Tired. Horse. Nr 13 but also as part of a John Furnival published portfolio of Finlay's works. This appears to be an early and unused proof copy of the work and any further background is not clear. This example has a significant paper lack bottom right only just missing the image. Any information on this image would be welcome.

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01 Dec LOOK, SEE. 1962. POSSIBLY UNIQUE SIGNED TYPSCRIPT TO VICTOR VASARELY. POSSIBLY FINLAY’S FIRST EVER CONCRETE POEM.

Posted at 17:40h in Unique Works

N.p:. s.p. (Finlay), Christmas 1962
20.3 x 17.4cm, original typescript on typing paper - with an original poem entitled "Look, see" - the first work by Finlay that may well be identified as a visual or concrete poem that we know of. The text- :: "A star ah afar a ww ww wan wan" is similar to other more traditional works by Finlay of the time which used modern day Scots vernacular but the placing of the words one above each other connected by vertical lines (which would have taken some care in construction) give an additional meaning to the text - indicating the act of looking up at a star. The context of being a Xmas gift to Victor Vasarely (the letter is signed to him) gives this work a slight religious overtone.
The letter is hand typed but there was probably more than one made as the "Happy Christmas to" and "from" parts are typed and the name later hand written in by Finlay suggesting others to other friends were made but we have never seen another example of this work. This has been glued at some point in an album (there are paper lacks in the corners of the page where it has been removed and it is somewhat browned but this is an important and quite possibly unique document.

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