Artist's Postcards - Unoriginal Sins

24 Sep FRUCTIDOR. 1992.

Posted at 17:23h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1992
11.5 x 11.2cm, 4pp. Folding card with a drawing of a still life by Kathleen Lindsley on the front of a basket of fruit, flowers and a crayfish. Fructidor was the twelfth month in the French Republican Calendar: named after the Latin word fructus, which means "fruit"
Each month in the republican calendar lasted 30 days and the weeks were repurposed to ten days each called decades. Further within every decade, each day had the name of an agricultural plant, except the fifth day when there was the name of an animal, and on the last the name of an agricultural tool.
In his instruction to the artist, Finlay has had same the ten fruits and flowers and animal included in the basket as in the names of the last decade of the month (the last name of the decade being actually "basket". VG+

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24 Aug LES FEMMES DE LA REVOLUTION. AFTER ANSELM KIEFER. 1992. HAND ADDRESSED WITH NOTE FROM FINLAY.

Posted at 17:38h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1992
15.9 x 20cm, 2pp. Card with a reproduced colour painting by Gary Hincks with the various names of important female figures in the French revolution illustrated with particular flowers. Éléonore Duplay, here "Madame Duplay" was Robespierre's companion and possible lover. She is shown as a wildflower (a sometime symbol of zeal in Finlay) - possibly Queen Anne's Lace but that is not certain just our amateur identification. The was also a large print version of this work (see elsewhere on this site).
This example has been posted and is hand addressed by Finlay in bklack ink with a note "love from Ian 23.8.92" to Dawn MacLeod. VG but a little battered by the mailing system.

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16 Aug WILDFLOWER, n. 1992.

Posted at 12:14h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1992
8.4 x 15.7cm, 4pp card. Two water colour paintings by Gary Hincks of wild growing flowers have two different Finlay definition works noted below each - the first is:

WILDFLOWER, n. a wayside text

and

WILDFLOWER, n. an inflammatory text

VG+.

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10 Jun SHEPHERD OF STONES/PASTOR OF OAKS. 1992.

Posted at 18:51h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1992) 10.2 x 6,.6cm, plain manilla envelope content of three 10 x 6cm, 1pp cards. The cards have texts at the top -

shepherd of stones on the grey card

pastor of oaks on the green card

and "pasteur de chenes" a quote from E. Lochac's Obelisque on the last white card. Lochac was a Jewish Ukrainian poet who lived in France and was persecuted by the Nazis. All VG+ in like envelope. ...

24 May FIGLEAF. 1992.

Posted at 17:48h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1992 9.0 x 16.4cm, 2pp. A drawing by Annet Stirling shows a group of leaves behind which the word FiGLEAF can just be read. The reference being the hiding of the genitals of statuary by the absurd placing of a figleaf. VG+...

13 Mar DROPPING ZONE OF THE ROSE PETALS RECOLLECTION. 1992.

Posted at 19:25h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1992 3.1 x 31.3cm, 4pp folded card sheet with a text:

DROPPING ZONE OF THE ROSE PETALS
in pink and
RECOLLECTION
in grey.
The colours reflect the petals first dropping, then the faded memory of their fall (the petals themselves also having lost their colour as they rot). VG+. ...

11 Mar CARNATION.

Posted at 19:18h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1995) 23 x 16.1cm, printed envelope content of two cards - one with a text printed black on cream from R.R. Palmer's "Twelve Who Ruled" regarding Saint-Just's way to the guillotine:

Saint-Just stood up in the first cart, head held high, his neck bare, a carnation in his buttonhole, his eyes cooly surveying the crowds that lined the street. The old Saint-Just was restored who said, 'I despise the dust that forms me and speaks to you.'"

The other card is unprinted and blood red.

Both cards have been cut on the diagonal to create guillotine blade shapes.
Finlay's admiration for the purity and lack of compromise of Saint-Just ir reflected in many of his works. This is another. VG+ in like envelope....

09 Mar 2.

Posted at 20:50h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. 14.5 x 12cm, 4pp artist's card with two poems -

Everything Falls Downwards
gravity

and

Everything Falls Onwards
history

VG+. ...

09 Mar VORTICIST TOY SHOP. 1992.

Posted at 10:23h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1992) 10.2 x 10.2cm, 4pp artist's card with a line drawing on the front by Stephen Duncalf of a toyshop but in a deconstructed style that could be read as both a vorticist style or a cubist construction. Inside there is a text by Finlay:

vorticist
toy shop

cubist
music shop

VG+. ...

07 Mar THE FALGEOLET’S SURNAME.

Posted at 22:20h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. 6.4 x 9cm, 2pp. Artist's card with the text:

The Flageolet's Surname

drum

A flageolet is a woodwind instrument like a flute - or a pipe. Often in the military, it was paired with a drum (a pipe and drum) - hence the flute's "surname" is the drum. VG+. ...

27 Feb WHICH FIGURE IS IN COSTUME? 1992

Posted at 20:26h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1992
11 x 15.5cm, 1pp card. A drawing by Wes Christensen of a modern man and a classical Greek man both holding up a leaflet. The text below the drawing asks "Which figure in in Costume?". The card simply seems to bring to attention that modern dress is as much a common costume as that of antiquity - which is a tad uninteresting but there you have it. We do not know the exact date of this card - our best guestimate based on the collaboration is 1999. VG+.

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14 Feb VALENTINE. HE LOVES HER. 1992.

Posted at 18:02h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1992
21.0 x 8cm, 2pp. A valentine's day card with several images of a flower with the petals slowly being lost until the last has gone leaving only the stalk. Much like a lover may decline a traditional question associated with valentine's day the words he loves her/he loves her not are repeated in turn until the petals have all gone. A final flower here with all the petals unplucked however rescues the day and the card announces "he loves her".
There was a companion card that reverses the gender of the words also released by Finlay at the same time. The drawing was by Gary Hincks. VG+

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