Artist's Postcards - Unoriginal Sins

15 Dec THE DESIRE OF TOWING. 1985. WITH HANDWRITTEN CHRISTMAS GREETING FROM FINLAY.

Posted at 10:27h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1985
9.4 x 20.4cm, 4pp card with two poems - one by Luois Zukofsky which was printed in POTH 6:
The
desire
of
towing
Conjoined with Finlay's
The
attire
of
snowing

The first refers to a barge being pulled along and the forces creating a desire to be somewhere else, the latter is a description of snow covering everything after a fall.
This example has a hand written Christmas greeting from Finlay on the left side of the inner card. VG+.

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07 Oct WINDMILLS WINDING WATERS. 1985.

Posted at 10:34h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1985
5.1 x 7.2 cm, 8pp concertina card printed red on white and on both sides of the card. On both sides is the same line: "WINDMILLS WINDING WATERS" one word per section, clearly one is to read the lines as having two different meanings.
The first is a description of the landscape the windmill is set in, the second is the wind caused by the rotating (winding) sails. VG+.

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07 Jul FEWER SCULPTURES! MORE STATUES! 1985.

Posted at 10:45h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1985
10.2 x 24.6cm, 1pp red on white card. The text reads: "FEWER SCULPTURES! MORE STATUES! LIVE AMMUNITION IN COMMUNITY ARTS!"
Clearly a provocation in response to events and Finlay's turning to opposing the council and his other enemies with verbal aggressions. VG+.

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05 Jun REED-PIPE. 1985.

Posted at 18:34h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1985
5.8 x 20.5cm, 1pp card printed black and red on cream with a drawing of a machine gun by Ron Costley which has holes in the barrel (to prevent over heating). Finlay has used this motif in prints and elsewhere to reflect the pan-pipes of the god Apollo.
Additional are several epigrams from the poet's "More Detached Sentences" (on gardening) and a note: "Owing to practical necessities of Little Sparta's War with Strathclyde Region, the Garden and Garden Temple are presently closed to the public. The provisional government of Little Sparta is revolutionary until the peace.".
This card is dated 1986 in both the flawed Murray Catalogue Raisonne and the Wild Hawthorn Press' own online listing of artist's cards - it is however clearly 1985 - not only printed on the card but additionally this example is hand addressed by Finlay to Harry Warschauer (and with a red rubber stamp impression - STRATHCLYDE REGION DER UNTERGANG DES ABENDLANDES) and the franking to the stamp is clearly dated "5 June 1985". We have restored this item to the correct date in this catalogue. VG+.

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07 May EVERY GOAL NEGATES. 1985. PAPER DART.

Posted at 10:49h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1985
21 x 21cm (unfolded), 2pp red on white card. The text "EVERY GOAL NEGATES" comes from the German atheist philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach in his book 'Thoughts on Death and Immortality' - in full it is 'Every goal negates; where there is no destruction, no negation and sacrifice of independent existence, there is no purpose." - emphasising the role of destruction and loss in the world.
Here Finlay has made this into a paper dart which is a weapon of sorts carrying Feuerbach's message to the person hit by the paper. VG+.

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13 Mar THE PERFECT SENTENCE.

Posted at 15:25h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d.
7.4 x 10cm, 10pp accordion fold with a text:

The perfect sentence/primly holding its proper content/like a plain little jug. With a drawing of such a jug byKathleen Lindsley.

Finlay creates a metaphor for good writing - simplicity and function. VG+ ...

08 Mar ON PAPER FRANCIS PICABIA WAS WICKEDLY WITTY….. 1985?

Posted at 19:24h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1985)
15 x 10.5cm, 2pp, a leaflet/card on glossy paper with a text:

On paper Francis Picabia was wickedly witty; in paint he was restless, stylish and shameless. Thirty five years after his death, one of the most provocative voices in modern art shouts louder than ever."

The text has been appropriated by the Saint-Just Vigilantes. VG+. ...

12 Dec MONTH OF THE POCKET BATTLESHIP. 1984. WITH EXTENSIVE HANDWRITTEN NOTE FROM FINLAY.

Posted at 10:56h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1984
8.8 x 10.2cm , 4pp black and red on white card.
The card lists twelve new names of the months of the year (much like the way the French Revolutionary calendar renamed the year. The names "Month of the Hurricane", "Month of the Snowman" mostly reflect the weather but there are also references to the events of 1793 but one line is printed in festive red "Month of the Pocket Battleship" which one may assume is the month around Christmas (this being a Christmas card). December is hence now the 4th month and a pocket battleship being a toy may be seen as a children's gift.,BR> This example of the card has a relatively long (for a small card) message from Finlay to Stuart (Mills?) "doesn't this card remind you a wee line of Old Times, even if it is not printed in 60's sepia? I thinkI made it especially for you. How are you? That rotten firm never answered my letter about their rotten clockwork boat. Love to all, your chum, Ian. 12.12.84". An insightful short missive. VG+.

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07 Oct NAMES ON TREES. 1984.

Posted at 11:08h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1984
8.8 x 10.2cm , 1pp black and red on white card.
The card has an illustration by Mark Stewart after a painting by Jacques Blanchard of Paris and Oenone. Oenone was Paris' first wife who he dumped for Helen of Troy. The card has a cut-out which creates a small version of a tree plaque in three dimensions. The card refers to five oval plaques having been made each with the names of classical lovers and five rectangular plaques with tree names. They were exhibited in the "English Garden: in Merian Park, Basel". VG+.

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07 Sep TEMPLE. 1984.

Posted at 11:57h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1984
10 x 10.5cm, 1pp artist's card with a drawing of a marble temple in a landscape by Mark Stewart below which Finlay has added a definition work:
TEMPLE, n, a marble edifice, a veined edifice; the sear or summit of reason.
and two quotations from Ovid's Metamorphses and Finlay's own Despatches from the Little Spartan War. In the former quote Philemon and Baucis have their hut turned into a Temple - which Finlay clearly regards as a similar process to his own renaming of a building on the estate as the Garden Temple. The second quote notes how Strathclyde raided the Garden Temple to take away artworks in lieu of what they claimed was unpaid rates. Clearly Finlay saw the second events as sacrilegious. VG+.

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07 Aug DADDY WHAT DID YOU DO IN THE LITTLE SPARTAN WAR? 1984.

Posted at 13:17h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1984 18.3 x 12.4cm , 1pp black on white card. The card appropriates a first world war recruitment poster with the original question "What did you do in the Great War Daddy?" replaced with a question about the Little Spartan War.
This card was sent to Harry Warschauer by Finlay and is hand addressed but also has two rubber stamp impressions one in red: "LITTLE SPARTA IS A LUCID MOMENT IN STRATHCLYDE REGION" and in blue "CONVERSE BY TOOM-TOM IN STRATHCLYDE REGION". VG+ although some ink smears caused by the postal system and the franking.

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07 Aug NEOCLASSICISM NEEDS YOU. 1984.

Posted at 11:38h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1984
16 x 14cm , 1pp black on white card.
The card appropriates Lord Kitchener first world war recruitment image with the slogan altered to "NEOCLASSICISM NEEDS YOU". A clarion call. VG+.

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