19 Apr

Posted at 12:34h in Unique Works

17 x 17 x 10cm, block of four etched stones on a marble base. An unique work with stylised Greek ionic columns holding a "frieze" with the words around the stones:

how blue! how far! how sad! how small! how white!

The texts are exclamations about a horizon where the sky meets the ground and a reminder how great forces are at work in the natural world hence this is a Romantic work.
This is an unique small work and not a maquette for a larger work.
There are small scratches and chips in the blocks but overall it is still in VG condition. We are not aware of the date of this work - we believe in the early 2000s....

19 Apr

Posted at 11:39h in Object + Paper Multiples

N.p. (Basel?): s.p. (Finlay), n.d.
2.5 x 3.5 x 0.75cm, two part printed matchbox content of blue tipped safety matches. The outside of the box has two separate sides – one being a promotional address and logo for a Swiss nightclub and the other (rather bizarrely) being an Ian Hamilton Finlay work with the name of a boat (Blue Lemon) with details of its port (Moray Firth) and boat number. We can find no reference to this in the Finlay literature and we do not know the limitation but it came from the collection of Finlay’s friend and collaborator Janet Boulton. In VG+ estate. Scarce.
Not in the Murray catalogue raisonne.

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08 Apr

Posted at 11:17h in Invitation Cards

Edinburgh: City Arts Centre, 2000.
15 x 21cm, 2pp announcement card for a group exhibition relating to the formation of the New Scottish Parliament. The front of the card shows a Finlay work from 1999 with the new parliamentary buildings relabelled with boat's numbers.
The architect Enri Miralles used upturned fishing boats as an inspiration for his ridiculously stupid, not-fit-for purpose building (if you have visited inside you will note the rooms for the Members of Parliament are too cramped and their assistants have to sit outside the rooms in a sort of open plan area that is again far too small but Miralles died and they went ahead with it when redeveloping the Old High School on Parliament Hill would have made so much more sense - First mInister Donald Dewar pushed this through and it was one of his bad decisions along with others that affected this writer in his past employment in politics but we digress out of past ire).
The text on the back of the card is also somewhat damning of the building with its faint praise and Finlay's question that if the buildings are boats, is the Parliament at sea level? VG+.

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24 Mar

Posted at 16:55h in Exhibition Catalogues

NYC: Nolan/Eckman Gallery, 2000
19 x 124cm, 52pp plus covers and pictorial dust jacket. An exhibition catalogue of mostly stone sculptures with Greek /classical themes although one sculpture is from the French revolution inspired works. 26 b/w full sheet images of works and short texts. VG+.

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18 Jan

Posted at 23:33h in Invitation Cards

Basel: STAMPA, 2000
10.5 x 15cm, 2pp announcement card with a Finlay tow boat on water "Im dunkeln Laub die Gold-Orangen glubn" on the front, verso gallery details,. A mailed and addressed example but still VG+.

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15 Dec

Posted at 19:20h in Object + Paper Multiples

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1999
Original mailing box content of a 2 x 4 x 1cm, pewter faux "net marker" with the inscription "SP" and a 12 x 16cm, 4pp printed card. A Christmas gift (here to the art dealers and curators M+R Fricke, Dusseldorf). Net markers, traditionally made of wood or cork, were used to establish ownership of nets in fishing communities and in ports usually carved with the fisherman's initials (sometimes a monogram) or later, as boats and their crews grew larger, with the fishing numbers of the fisherman's boat.
The card has a drawing on it (by Gary Hincks) of five net markers with A, JS, JN, SP, A on them - these represent the first five of Jesus's disciples and there is a biblical quote - from Matthew 4: 'As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother,...

14 Nov

Posted at 11:44h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1999
14.2 x 9cm, 16pp, plus oversize white card covers and floral decorated dust jacket with tipped on title label. Content of six "exchange" poems - three by Thomas A. Clark and three by Finlay where the structure is of a two line poetic phrase where the swapping of the adjectives or a noun alters the meaning in subtle manners. This:

the centuries of the oak/the sermon in the stone
becomes
the centuries of the stone/the sermon in the oak
Each is illustrated by a small painting by Laurie Clark. VG+.

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09 Nov

Posted at 17:24h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1999) 10 x 9.5cm, 4pp. Artist's postcard with an appropriated text about model making and the comparison as to how real navies staff their ships seeing the soldiers and sailors as "little men". The title "Thought for the Day" references a daily BBC4 section of the early morning news where religious figures are invited to give a short homily to the audience (who usually wait it out until the useful part of the show returns). VG+. ...

21 Oct

Posted at 16:46h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996

7 x 8.5cm, 12pp plus printed card covers. Artist's book which is printed in green in one direction (Orchard) and once turned around is orange in the other (Larder). The words in both directions are APPLE, PEAR, CHERRY, PLUM, TREE and APPLE, PEAR, CHERRY, PLUM, JAM. The former is denoted as the "Inauguration of the orchard, Little Sparta, Autumn 1999" and the latter "Replenishment of the larder, Little Sparta, Autumn 1999". A small delight. VG+.

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06 Oct

Posted at 23:49h in Invitation Cards

Lubeck: Overbeck-Gesellschaft, 1991
21 x 10cm, 2pp announcement card with a reproduction of VENTOSE from 19991 on the front. Verso gallery details. VG+.

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27 Sep

Posted at 10:30h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1999
15 x 10.7cm, 2pp, black on white card with a text:

l'invitation
de ce grand
espace blanc

Beken of Cowes was a photographer who specialised in marine photograph in the Solent and around the Isle of Wight. The "invitation to a large white space" is from a letter by Stephan Mallarme - one of the most important of concrete poets who used space to make meaning in his works. The comparison between the poet's work and the photography of seascapes is at the heart of this work. VG+

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