paul robertson, Author at Unoriginal Sins

12 Nov A SEASONAL MONUMENT. 1995.

Posted at 20:55h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
10.3 x 14cm, 2pp, Artist's card printed black on deep green. The full title is "A SEASONAL MONUMENT TO THE SOVIET POET MAYAKOVSKY*" beneath which is the line "The smashed canoes of the Salix fragilis". Salix fragilis is the willow tree. Mayakovsky killed himself after his love affair with three different women turned sour - he left a poetic suicide note that included the words "The love-boat has come to grief/On the reefs of convention." The crack willow trees are known to break open (usually with a very loud noise) and Finlay's metaphor of a "smashed canoe" reflects the poem left behind in Mayakovsky's flat. VG+.

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08 Nov PINES IN THE SNOW. 1995.

Posted at 09:26h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d.. (1995) 12.7 x 8.2cm, 4pp artist's card which shows a list of "words" each beginning with the capital letter T and then various anagrams of LARK (but not the word Lark itself) - it is hard to be sure of the meaning of this card other than perhaps the letters are meant to represent the branches of the various pine trees (and the birds in them). VG+. 1...

02 Nov LYING JUDAS. 1995. MONK’S SECOND GLASGOW EXHIBITION.

Posted at 09:14h in Jonathan Monk

Glasgow/Loire: Tramway/Frac de Pays de la Loire, 1995BR> 21 x 15cm 48pp plus card covers. Exhibition catalogue from conceptualist Monk's second Glasgow one man show which was entitled "A Brush with Death".
Monk's work often takes the works of great artists and gives it a twist. Particularly good are Monk's holiday paintings - the essence of a vacation instilled into a textual advert on canvas - sold at the same price as the original holiday. Fine. Scarce.

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01 Nov ECHOES SERIES. IL PLEUT. 1995.

Posted at 20:46h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
16.5 x 10.5cm, 2pp, Artist's card designed in the format of the Apollinaire Il Pleut calligramme where the lines descend like rain - but the text here is taken from D. H. Lawrence's Autumn Rain. This is one of Finlay's Echoes Series where known poetic works are recreated with some aspect of the original retained. VG+.

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31 Oct HAPPY BIRTHDAY IAN. 1995.

Posted at 10:48h in Invitation Cards

London: Victoria Miro Gallery, 1995.
15 x 10.5cm, 4pp (single folded sheet) with a drawing of a "birthday cake" on the front which is actually a neo-classical broken column (drawn by Gary Hincks). The announcement for a solo show of recent small publications by Finlay to honour his 70th birthday. VG+.

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29 Oct JUG. 1995.

Posted at 20:38h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
5.5 x 10.9cm, 4pp, Artist's card with a definition work by Finlay printed on the inner card:
"Jug, n. if in a still-life by Juan Gris, the note of the nightingale."
Gris being one of the most important of Cubists who often painted still life works in which brown earthenware often featured. The jug of a nightingale being also the sound it makes. The colour of the card is also that of the crockery. Essentially a visual pun cum poem. VG+.

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15 Oct ONE OF 100 NUMBERS THAT JUST HAPPEN. 1995.

Posted at 12:50h in Artist's Postcards

Vermont: Longhouse, 1995
8.8 x 10.8cm, 4pp black on green folding card - the internal poems have capitalised first letters which vertically read as the words CRATE DOOR, HOE, SOAP, BALSA and TWINE. The associated words create a description of each word eg.:

H eaven
O rders
E arth

Order comes from above - as it does when a gardener uses a hoe. VG+.

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03 Oct THE MASTLESS BARGES. 1995.

Posted at 20:32h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
10.5 x 8.5cm, 1pp, Artist's card with a quotation from Greenhill's "Sailing for a Living" describing a barge and its crew moving along the canal. The bottom half of the typography is deliberately obscured from the bottom as if misprinted - reflecting the text where the low level of the boats make it look like the men on board are walking just above the water. VG+.

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27 Sep THE ANNUNCIATION, AFTER FRA ANGELICO. 1995.

Posted at 20:25h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
11.3 x 14cm, 2pp, Artist's card with a photograph of a fishing boat. The title of the card is "The Annunciation, After Fra Angelico" which is a famous fresco in Florence showing an angel telling the supposed virgin Mary that she is pregnant. VG+. We do not know for certain but it may well be that the vessel's name is "The Annunciation". VG+.

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26 Sep IAN HAMILTON FINLAY. WORKS: PURE AND POLITICAL. 1995. SIGNED BY FINLAY.

Posted at 16:35h in Exhibition & Other Posters

Hamburg: Deichtorhallen Hamberg, 1995
89 x 60cm, b/w offset lithographic exhibition poster with a reproduced photograph of a sculptural work (See Poussin/Hear Lorraine) in situ at Little Sparta. This exhibition poster is unusually signed in pencil by Finlay under the image . VG.

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21 Sep IAN HAMILTON FINLAY BOOKS AND RELATED OBJECTS. 1995.

Posted at 22:59h in Invitation Cards

NYC: Printed Matter Inc, 1995
10.5 x 15cm, 2pp typographic announcement card for a show of books and objects. VG+.

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11 Sep ECHOES SERIES (ARBRE DE LA LIBERTE). 1995.

Posted at 14:51h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995 10.5 x 5cm, 4pp card with a 4pp insert. Two drawings - both concrete poems (or Calligrammes) one the original by Guillaume Apollinaire and the other by Ron Costley after Finlay's instruction. Apollinaire's Eloge de l'arbre has the text: "arbre qui fut la displante par Victor Hugo" - praising the socialist writer (the tree that was planted by Victor Hugo), Finlay's reflection becomes "Abre de la liberte et sa floraison"(Liberty tree and its flowering) a reference to the french Revolution and the symbolic trees shown at the feasts and celebrations. A lovely small concrete work. VG+. ...