09 Mar

Posted at 16:44h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. 9.8 x 8.6cm, 4pp artist's postcard that show a drawing of mouthwash bottles on the front by gary Hincks. Inside is a poem by Finlay:

Des Esseintes

The muddied
colours of
the mouthwash
cocktails

Jean des Esseintes is a fictional character in a novel by Joris-Karl Huysmans. The character hates the modern world and lives an eccentric, reclusive life in an aesthetic of his own making. Presumably Finlay dislikes the plastic fuctionalism of mouthwash bottles. VG+. ...

06 Mar

Posted at 13:59h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995 12 x 8.8cm, 4pp. Artist's card with two drawings front and back by Gary Hincks after texts by Bridgey Penney (A Catch of Poems about the Shipping Forecast) and Homer's Odyssey (Book XI) - the first drawing shows two boats, one of which is named Morning Star (the name of son Eck Finlay's small press) against a sunrise and the second an oar sunk into the ground as a form of monument. The first has the text BILLOWS PILLOWS under it and the second BILLOW WINNOW. The "pillows" of the first are nets and folded sails being caught by the wind, and the second similar pair of words meaning the wind through grass. VG+. ...

23 Feb

Posted at 18:49h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
11.9 x 17.7cm, 2pp. Different forms of hatch beams which have different combinations in different boat designs are shown here in cross elevation in a drawing by Gary Hincks. In some ways this is just an abstract composition but it also reflects Marcel Broodthaers reworking of Stephane Mallarme's Un coup de dés jamais n'abolira le hasard (A Throw of the Dice will Never Abolish Chance) where the text of the original concrete poem is replaced by black rectangles that emphasis the placing of the words and negating the semantic. VG+.

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20 Feb

Posted at 11:14h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
6 x 12cm, 6pp concertina folded card. A text "one piece of driftwood patched on another" is repeated on three of the panels - but the typography of each is different with various fonts used to emphasis different aspects of the conjured images. The different fonts also reflect the text in that each is "patched" upon another in an unusual way that still creates a harmonious whole. VG+.

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08 Feb

Posted at 08:40h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d.. (1990) 14 x 11.4cm, 4pp printed outer folder with 4pp insert - a typographic design which is part artist's card and part poem in a folder. There are two poems inside on the inner sheet:

Morning
The solace of chill fields.

and

Evening
A broken bow of geese.

Both simple works reflect the style of the Imagists of which Yvor Winters was a key early figure (along with Pound and Elliot) - simplistic and minimal but accurate in the use of language. Additionally both images in the poem are winter scenes - punning on the poet's name and the title. VG+.
We have placed this work as an artist's card because of its promotion as such by Finlay but it could be argued to be otherwise. In fact the Wild Hawthorn Press indicate it is a "valentine" card!...

06 Feb

Posted at 11:02h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
6 x 12cm, 4pp. A monostitch is a one line poem - here the monostich is preceded by "For a Seat - to be Placed by a Stream".
Inside the poem reads "A Row of Crack Willows or Marilyn Monroes". Crack willows are trees that are renowned for the sound they make when the branches and parts of the trunk break. Monroe was, of course, a film actress who died early and a great beauty.
The leaves of the willows, of course, billow as they hang down and that is reminiscent of the most famous of images of Monroe with her wide skirt billowing up as she stands over an underground hot air grate in the film "Some Like It Hot". There is also a duplication of the sound of the word Row in her name. VG+.

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15 Jan

Posted at 10:47h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
13.6 x 10.4cm, 4pp. A drawing by Gary Hincks of a fishing boat with five sails - each is numbered in the "plan" and are all denoted as being made from a "hanky" - namely, Foresale, Topsail, Staysail and Mainsail hankies but the fifth is denoted as Sunday Hanky.
The "hankies" clearly mark out this boat as a toy model and the final sail is something of an oddity in sailing in that it is not that an important element in the rigging. As such - like a Sunday Hanky - only shown during important events, it is an adornment rather than functional. VG+.

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03 Jan

Posted at 10:18h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
14 x 11cm, 1pp. he card reproduced a vintage photograph of a small three sailed boat and crew - CH.8619 - returning home with masts down after fishing (an image of the same boat that Finlay used in the 1994 FLIRT) and the text "SANS-CULOTTE: SANS-CULOTTES" beneath it.
The sans-culottes were the great mass of the people during the 18th century and a motive force in the late years of the French revolution: the nickname meaning they did not have breechs (because of poverty).
This is an image of a working trawler - representing the proletarian masses in some sense, and with the sails down they are metaphorically also without breeches. VG+.

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15 Dec

Posted at 09:42h in Artist's Postcards

Little: Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, Xmas 1994
6.7 x 13cm, 4pp card with 6.7 x 13cm, 1pp insert.
The card is a typical evolving visual poem by Finlay:

the October-coloured sails of old Thames barges
the water-filled footprints of old Thames barges
the cold Christmas stables of old Thames barges
the Georgian pastorals of old Thames barges

The fourth line is printed in festive red.
The insert explains the imagery: the October-coloured sails are caused by the linseed oil on the sails hinting at Autumn colours, the water-filled footprints comes from a quote from a book on old barges where abandoned boats are left in mud in creeks to rot, the festive line recalls the "long, low holds with their tie beams and ceilings" which Finlay clearly sees as a suitable site for a manger, and the Georgian pastorals reflects the hay and straw that many of the boats carried - turning them into miniature moving countrysides.
This example is signed " Happy Christmas from Ian" in pencil on the back and also has the original envlope which is addressed in pencil (again by Finlay) to Edward and Jan. VG+.

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20 Nov

Posted at 10:11h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1994
13.0 x 15.4cm, 4pp. A tipped on colour photograph by Antonia Reeve of a Finlay wall sculpture by John Andrew. The marble inscription reads: "For the first time men earnestly relied upon heaven chronology became historical and astronomical at the same time." a quote by Michelet and an explanatory note by Finlay noting how the Republican calendar "ended" time. VG+.

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12 Nov

Posted at 09:55h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1994
14.5 x 9.3m, 1pp. The card reproduced a vintage photograph of a small three sailed boat and crew - CH.8619 - and the text "Cours apres moi que je t'attrape" - "run after me, I will catch you" which Finlay translates into the bare word "FLIRT". VG+.

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01 Nov

Posted at 09:53h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1994
17.5 x 12.7m, 2pp. The card reproduces a photograph by David Paterson in b//w of old rhubarb leaves overgrowing part of the Little Sparta garden. The title of the card makes a joke of the image , the Italian translated to "rhubarb ruins". VG+.

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