Artist's Postcards - Unoriginal Sins

24 Sep A LIBERTY TREE. 1990.

Posted at 18:33h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1990
23.6 x 15.9cm, 4pp folding card. A uncredited (although looks like Gary Hincks' style) painting of a Liberty Tree but here with chains and locks around it (the American and French revolutionary symbols did not have any locks but were just trees left free to grow). Under the tree Finlay has added the names of the French and other critics who had disingenuously and erroneously accused him of being anti-semite. A simple visual poetic attack on his enemies. VG+.

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24 Aug A ROSE IS A ROSE IS A ROSE. 1990.

Posted at 18:40h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1990
5.0 x 17.8cm, 2pp card. One side has the text: "A ROSE IS A ROSE IS A ROSE" accredited to "Gertrude Jekyll" and on the other side "ARROWS ARE ARROWS ARE ARROWS" accredited to "Hereclitus". Jekyll was an influential turn of the century gardener and the quote is an adaption of Shakespeare as is the fake quotation offered as Hereclitian. The latter, of course, stressed the lack of repetition in history. A jokey work. VG+.

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07 May WATER-LILIES. 1990.

Posted at 23:06h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, N.D. (1990)
19 x 13.3cm, 1pp artist's card with a drawing by Gary Hincks of American battle decals (stars) placed such as there is a visual correspondence with a patch of water-lilies. VG+. ...

24 Mar TWO MILESTONES. 1990.

Posted at 18:47h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1990
17.8 x 8.2cm, 4pp card. The front of the card has the text: "TWO MILESTONES/TWO LIVES" in red and then below "Varennes/Vincennes" in green.
The first "milestone" here was the town where the King Louis XVI was stopped when he and Marie Antoinette and their children tried to flee France after they were being held hostage by the revolution. The second milestone is the forrest where Rousseau wandered and had a "revelation" regarding the role of science and arts in human morality which he claimed changed his worldview. Both places changed the history of the individuals and one may argue the world. VG+.

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15 Mar ELEGY.

Posted at 16:22h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d.
9.5 x 6.cm, 4pp, Artist's card with a drawing of a boat on the front.

Internally there is a list of names:

Elegy
Elizabeth Campbell
Isa Wilson
Charlotte Chambers
Yvonne Risager
George R. Wood
Mary Robinson
William Risager
These appear to be names of boats (the Yvonne Risager and William Risager being built in 1955 according to Fishing News, a publication Finlay often read) . On the back of the card are the boat registrations numbers:

PL56, D, NI20, SD50, A465, BH32, BA110

One presumes the elegy is for lost or ruined boats - but this is the author's speculation. VG+.

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03 Mar MATISSE CHEZ DUPLAY. 1990.

Posted at 14:25h in Artist's Postcards

Glasgow: Glasgow Museums and Art Galleries, 1990 21 x 14.9cm, 2pp full colour postcard with an image of Finlay's title neon work on the front, verso gallery details. Photograph by Elke Walford taken during the Gresat British Art exhibition. VG+. ...

20 Dec SNOW. N. A NEOCLASSICAL PRECIPITATION. 1989. XMAS CARD.

Posted at 09:43h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989 12 x 10cm, 4pp (single folded sheet of card). The text which is embossed (raised) on this card to keep it white like snow reads: Snow, n. a neoclassical precipitation. The drawing (also embossed) is by Gary Hinks. Rather lovely. VG+. Scarce....

10 Dec SOMEWHERE IN THE WOOD. MORNING STAR REPRINT. 1989

Posted at 13:20h in Artist's Postcards

Edinburgh: Morningstar Press, 1989 12.4 x 18.6cm, 4pp. Printed letterpress. Christmas card black on handmade paper with the text:
Somewhere in the wood was shining the
little red lantern of Christmas...

24 Nov INSTALLATION. 1989.

Posted at 19:41h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1990
18.7 x 9.3cm, 4pp card. The front and the back of the card has two drawings of a guillotine but one has the blade in place and is labelled "Installation" and the other sans blade is labelled "Event" on the back. The inside of the card is blank. The difference may be that the blade completes the purpose of the structure. VG+.

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20 Nov MATISSE CHEZ DUPLAY. 1989.

Posted at 20:21h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
16.9 x 12cm, 2pp. Blue on white artist's card with a quotation from Lamartine's History of the Girondists regarding the very basic furniture and ornaments found in Robespierre's room. The typography by Julie Farthing is similar to that of Matisse's handwriting and the reference to Duplay is that the latter rented the chambers to Robespierre. There is a neon of this same work. VG+.

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01 Oct FOR SIMON CUTTS. 1989.

Posted at 08:32h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
14 x 9.5cm, 4pp. Artist's folding card with the text "a line of thin pale red" inside which is a translation from Chenier - the French poet of revolutionary times who was guillotined. The red here being blood and the line that left momentarily from the clean cut of the blade. I do not know if Cutts and Finlay were friends at this point - as the card seems to hint at threat - but both published jointly a similar work together under the aegis of Cutts' Coracle Press a few years earlier. VG+.

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27 Sep VOYSEY STILE. 1989.

Posted at 08:50h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
15.3 x 11.4cm, 1pp. Artist's card with a technical drawing of a fencing style by Mark Stewart which in its lines and decoration places it as art nouveau and more specifically influenced by C. F. A. Voysey who made textiles with hearts and plants as motifs. If this was ever constructed then it would be rather beautiful. VG+.

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