02 May

Posted at 10:30h in Letters + Documents

Little Sparta: Finlay, n.d. (c. May 1988)
An original vintage xerox 30 x 21cm, 1pp statement from Finlay in the guise of the Saint-Just Vigilantes pointing out that Strathclyde Regiona had placed arrestment orders of £10,920 against an alleged rate debt of £4,370 and that the Region had already seized £2,800 against the same debt in February 1988. Finlay also points out that the Region had taken works of art by force five years earlier against the debt, works which they still retained.
Finlay explains that the disputed building is entered in the valuation roll as a "garden temple".
"In law the Region is obliged to accept this description but has persisted in using the phrase 'commercial art gallery'. Unable to grasp the nature of a building they have never visited, they also demand the right to interpret the law within the confines of their own understanding."
Finlay points out in the statement that the Region has refused any rates appeal hearing and by their recent arrestment orders has renewed its attack on Little Sparta exactly when the Glasgow Garden Festival is about to take place.
In protest at these actions Finlay announces that "we have withdrawn from all public projects in Scotland including the Glasgow Garden Festival, the Robert Louis Stevenson Memorial and projects in progress for the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art" and calls on others to withdraw from the Garden Festival.
JOINT (stapled to the statement):
Two xerox sheets (both 30 x 21cm, 1pp) with a text and an image of Finlay's 'APHRODITE OF THE TERROR' - the text by Stephen Bann explaiins the work and it's classical origins. Finlay in his statement says the Region's actions are an "apt commentary" on the work.

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02 May

Posted at 09:20h in Letters + Documents

Little Sparta: Finlay, 1988
Five original vintage xeroxes each 30 x 21cm, 1pp with press cuttings (all 1988) from The Times Literary Supplement, The Scotsman (2), and two unidentified Dutch newspapers reproducing letters to the Editor and articles about Finlay as well as one by Wim Meulenkamp (one of Finlay's accusers) in which he responds to positive support for Finlay from the Kroller-Muller museum and outrageously calls Finlay once again a "crypto-fascist".
One article in the Scotsman Arts Review of May 23 1998 is by Duncan Macmillan (who for once gets it right) describes the original commission in details - clearly fed background on the various meanings of the proposed work by Finlay - in some detail. It makes one regret the work never having been made.
Copied at the time by Finlay to distribute to friends and press as a source of information. VG although some rippling of the paper.

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30 Apr

Posted at 09:49h in Letters + Documents

Little Sparta: Finlay, 30th April 1988
An original vintage xerox 30 x 21cm, 1pp with a Press Release from Finlay relating to the arrestment of £4,600 from their bank accounts by the means of "32 arrestment orders" and that "Strathclyde Region has issued a further 9 arrestment orders" obtaining another £1,850.
Finlay claims that the Strathclyde Region had lied to the Scotsman Arts editor that no money had been taken and therefore the act had not been covered in the newspaper.
Finlay also point out that the Region's Sheriff Officer stated that the money had been "taken in error" but had not been returned to the Finlay accounts by time of writing.
The final humorous sentence states that "a spokesman for the Region has observed that we should have known better than to keep money in our bank account."
It is worth noting that in 1988 Finlay did not have his troubles to seek - the fight with Strathclyde Region over the rating of the Temple building in Little Sparta had not gone away and he was also fighting against the cancellation of a major installation in France (where no doubt the fee would have come in useful given the other financial attacks he was facing such as the above) and vindictive accusations of being a "crypto=fascist".
A copy of the press release distributed by Finlay to friends and supporters as part of the latter's information campaign against his opponents.

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28 Apr

Posted at 10:01h in Letters + Documents

Little Sparta: Finlay, 30th April 1988
An original vintage xerox 30 x 21cm, 2pp with a reproduced letter from Finlay to Michel Blum (one of his accusers) at the Ligue des Droits de l'Homme - Finlay writes in anger that Blum has not replied to his questions asking if Blum had actually seen any of Finlay's works that he condemned but instead replied with "a renewal of your accusations, couched in the coldest, most cruel terms."
Finlay then continues:
"Let it be said that your attacks on me are in no way a matter of a cultural disagreement. They are attacks which given the terminology you use, can only have the effect of destroying me, my livelihood, Sue Finlay, and our children. I say that you are an intellectual terrorist: I tell you further, that those who casually and contemptuously destroy innocent people are taking a very great risk."
"I last saw you wearing a pair of high, polished boots and carrying a little whip in your hand. Your behaviour will not be forgotten. You will not always be so happy to be Maitre Michel Blum."
Finlay could be cutting.
Copied at the time by Finlay to distribute to friends and press as a source of information. VG

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27 Apr

Posted at 18:23h in Letters + Documents

Little Sparta: Finlay, n.d. (April 1988) An original vintage xerox 30 x 21cm, 1pp with a Press Release from Finlay announcing the appointment of two Parisian lawyers - Maitre Zylberstein and Maitre Nordman. it notes that the former represented Daniel Buren when he was in conflict with the French Government and the latter a prominent member of the French Communist Party and represented the victims of the Nazi Claus Barbie in the (then) recent trial in France.
The statement announces that "actions for damages are being taken against Jonathan Hirschfeld and a number of French publications as well as against the French government. A "Droit de Reponse" is also being sought."
The statement also announces that "on the night of April 26 the French Section of the Saint-Just Vigilantes carried out a series of poster raids on enemy territory. Among the target-buildings were the French Ministry of Culture, the offices of Art Press and Galeries magazine, the Hirschfeld residence, and the Ligue des Droits de l'Homme. The posters carried a text from Dante: "Lasciate Ogni Speranza Voi CH'Enratre!".
Those words are the famous warning over the gates to Hades - Abandon hope, all who enter here!
Finally the statement notes "the smear campaign being carried out by Waldemar Januszczak of the Guardian, Gwyn Headley the publicist, Wim Meulenkamp, Warren Davis of the National Trust and others in England and Holland. "Appropriate action is being prepared."
A copy of the press release distributed by Finlay to friends and supporters as part of the latter's information campaign against his opponents - in it all of Finlay's enemies are name checked.

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27 Apr

Posted at 17:31h in Letters + Documents

n.p.: n.p. (Maitre Jean-Claud Zylberstein), n.d. (1988)
An original vintage xerox 30 x 21cm, 1pp copy of a statement (here in the original English) made by Finlay's lawyer Maitre Jean-Claud Zylberstein on the day that he announced actions for damages against Jonathan Hirschfeld, Art press, the magazine Galeries and the French Government.
The statement notes the horror felt by Finlay at being attacked as being a Nazi and being anti-semitic and the background where a work OSSO exhibited in Paris ARC in 1987 was mis-interpreted: "the work equated the SS insignia with the "primal wildness" of nature and with death. In the exhibition it was contrasted with the perfected forms of culture represented by the neo-platonic Cubes. This was clearly set out in the texts displayed in the exhibition".
The attacks on Finlay by Jonathan Hirschfeld who Finlay had co-exhibited with in the Fondation Cartier were also explained. Maitre Jean-Claud Zylberstein argues that Hirschfeld picked a fight in private correspondence with Finlay and then released them with deliberate mistranslations to make Finlay look bad.
"A man is not a Nazi because he identifies the SS with savage nature or because he defends himself when attacked unreasonably by a man who happens to be jewish."
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23 Apr

Posted at 21:23h in Letters + Documents

Paris: Catherine Boutry, 23rd April, 1988
30 x 21cm, 2pp original xerox copy of a letter sent by Catherine Boutry (a well known architectural writer in France) to the President of the French Republic. The letter (obviously written in French) brings the dispute over the Versailles commission to the latter's attention. Describing the background to the commission, Boutry attacks Finlay's detractors and points out that elements of Finlay's letters were deliberately used to malign the artist. She asks the President to consider an appeal to the decision.

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17 Apr

Posted at 17:47h in Letters + Documents

Little Sparta: Finlay, c. 17 April 1988
A 21 x 30cm, 1pp original xerox of an article in the Scotsman from 16th April 1988 noting that the US vetoed a resolution in the United Nations Security Council to censure Israel for its "iron fist response " to the Palestinian uprising in the occupied West Bank. A reproduced typed note by Finlay is along side.
The note in full is: "The question of deportation entered this controversy because Hirschfeld was going to be deported from France and asked Finlay to intervene on his behalf. This introduced by the problems France imposed on Hirschfeld, the word "deportation: has been used - with perverse cunning - as "proof" of Finlay's alleged anti-semitism.
If to use the word "deportation" is to be an anti-semite advocating the holocaust, what is to be understood by the attached report from The Scotsman newspaper April 16 1988."
In the article Finlay has highlighted a paragraph where the Americans called on Israel to "rescind deportation orders against Palestinians. His point is his critics have deliberately misrepresented his views by selective quoting of charged language.
BR> ...

17 Apr

Posted at 09:39h in Letters + Documents

Little Sparta: Finlay, 17th April 1988
An original vintage xerox 30 x 21cm, 1pp with a letter from Finlay to Michel Blum (one of his accusers) at the Ligue des Droits de l'Homme - Finlay points out that he has not had an answer to his previous letter of April 4 1988 nor his letter of April 11 1988.
Finlay then quotes the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen:
"Article V11
No man can be accused, arrested, or kept in detention except in the situations determined by the law...

16 Apr

Posted at 08:59h in Letters + Documents

Manchester: ME Action Campaign, 16th April 1988
An original vintage xerox 30 x 21cm, 1pp of a letter from Martin Lev to Catherine Millet" of Art Press
A letter taking Millet to task for her claims that Sue and Ian Finlay were anti-Semite. Lev praises Sue Finlay for her actions in the ME Action Campaign (on whose letterhead this letter was typed - possibly without permission) and says he knows them both well. He notes his own Jewishness and says that he finds it "absolutely extraordinary" that the claims could be made against them Finlays
"It seems clear to me that Ian is the innocent victim of a particularly sordid and nasty bout of in-fighting in the French political and art world...

14 Apr

Posted at 21:15h in Letters + Documents

Petersfield: Bedales School, 14th April, 1988
30 x 21cm, 1pp original xerox copy of a letter sent by Jessie Sheeler to m. Yves Jouffra, President de League de Droit de l'Homme complaining about the attack by Michel Blum on Finlay. Sheeler points to Sue and Ian Hamilton Finlay's support to victims of injustice and discrimination. "It is tragically ironic that your organisation has allowed itself to be identified with oppressive and vindictive forces at wokr in your society." A facsimile copy of the letter distributed by Finlay to friends and supporters.

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12 Apr

Posted at 17:06h in Letters + Documents

Little Sparta: Finlay, April 1988
An original vintage xerox 30 x 21cm, 1pp statement from Finlay in which he notes the allegations against him in Art Press, on the French radio station Europe 1, in the April edition of Galeries magazine edited by Yves Hyatt where they refer to his "pervasive allusions to Nazi horrors".
Finlay, in turn, accuses his accusers of "a crude attempt to use - that is, to abuse - emotions associated with race in order to destroy me, my work, my family , and my livelihood. it is sad that those who complain of past tyrannies, and who talk of "human rights" commit these excesses. Certainly what is thrust upon us is a war and from now on we shall defend ourselves in every way we can."

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