18 Mar

Posted at 22:15h in Artist's Books

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1969
21 x 17.8cm, 12pp. Original card covers with pictorial dust wrapper. An artist's book with three b/w photographs of boats on the large pond (Later to be called Loch Ech after Ian's son) on Finlay's recently purchased farm alongside three concrete poems - the words placed in a constellation or grid under the photographs. This example is signed and dedicated by Finlay in blue felt tipped ink on the inside front cover to Maxwell Allan a friend and collaborator. VG.

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16 Mar

Posted at 11:04h in Artist's Postcards

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1969
16.5 x 12cm, 2pp. The card has a reproduced drawing by Margot Sandeman of boats and overlaid is a text which lists three names OF barge - Ethel Maud, Lapwing, Spinaway C and the four name FOR barges - Bramble, Titch, Typhoo, Prettypolly. The former are presumably existing names, the latter names that Finlay would like to allocate.
Murray has this as Card 4.18. ...

19 Feb

Posted at 15:30h in Page Works & Contributions

London: Studio International, 1969
31 x 24cm, 104pp plus card covers. Single number of this important and long running art journal which a 4pp article - Ian Hamilton Finlay - the structure of a poetic universe by Stephen Bann. Six works in b/w reproduced. Binding a bit loose else VG+.

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25 Dec

Posted at 21:53h in Prints + Posters

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1968 45.9 × 52cm, yellow and black on white silkscreen. A collaboration with the well known British pop artist Caulfield in the latter's bold, thick out-llined style. Four lemons are in a bowl, and the word MARINE is next to the bowl seemingly on a piece of wood or card (possibly a fisherman's slip used to identify who owned what fish boxes when the catch went to market).
In a number of different works, Finlay often compares lemons to boats - so this is on one level a scene of a harbour: the lemons are made even more obviously to represent boats as they each has port registration numbers on them.,
The edition size is not known. All copies of the print are unsigned (which was Finlay's preference but a little unusual for the pop artist). There are some scuffs on the black of this silkscreen but else VG. This is a very rare print - partly for the later popularity of Caulfield.
JOINT:
15 x 21cm, 1pp. Printed compliments slip "Marine: Ian Hamilton Finlay:drawn by Patrick Caulfield" and with added hand written note: "Love from Ian, 4 January 1969". Perhaps might be regarded in lieu of a signature.
BR> MEDIUM Screenprint on paper DIMENSIONS Image: ...

24 Dec

Posted at 08:55h in Prints + Posters

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1968
56 x 43cm, 2pp. Green on blue on white paper - a circular design made up of fishing boat names typographically set by Alistair Cant on Finlay's instruction. The pattern creates both a planet or the movement in the stars as they appear to spin around the boat as night passes. Stars for boats are essential to allow passage - until modern methods of navigation they were the sailor's only orientation. The choice of the boat names chosen by Finlay reinforces that - all have the word STAR in them e.g. Morning Star, Day Star, Fortune Star and so on.
This is the second of two large prints with a similar intent - Sea Poppy 1 being in 1966 - the other uses the letters and numbers of the boats - here the attractive names people give their vessels are used instead.
The title Sea Poppy refers to the yellow hornpoppy which only grows on sea shores - again a clear nautical reference.
This design and others like it was used by Finlay in different formats including wall works, object multiples, printed posters and cards - but this printed version uses colours that are hard to see against each other - given the text is more readable in the other formats of this work it is tempting to suggest that the colour clash here was a mistake although some psychedelic designs of the late 60s did deliberately set up such colour clashes.

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30 Aug

Posted at 09:45h in Unique Works

50 x 40cm, stone etched glass with a design by Finlay based on one of the Blue and Brown Poems on custom wooden base. One of the earliest of Finlay glass works which is similar in structure to the prints Net Ring or Sea Poppy. VG+ condition....

10 Aug

Posted at 19:24h in Page Works & Contributions

NYC: New Directions, 1968 21 x 15cm, 186pp plus wrappers, Single number of this anthology of poetry contributors include: Manuel Banderis (Nine poems), Alan Burns (Europe after the Rain), Russell Edson (Wedding Night), Mary Feldhaus-Weber (The Virgin, the Lizard and the Lamb), Richard Fields (At the Silver Rail), , Paul Friedman (Portrait), Jonathan Greene (5 poems), Charles Guenther (Escalator), Elia Katz (Reynold Stengrow's Short Story), Thoma Merton (Symbolism: Communication of Communion?) Denise Levertov (some notes on Organic Form), James Purdy (2 poems) Kenneth Rexroth (Heart's garden) Muriel Rukeyser (Speek of Darkness), Tennessee Williams (You and I) . Finlay is included with many of the poems (in traditional form) from Dancers Inherit the Party reproduced. VG+>

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22 Jul

Posted at 14:13h in Prints + Posters

Bath: Openings Press, n.d.
28 x 28cm, 2pp offset print with an "poem by Ian Hamilton Finlay interpreted by Angela Wellard" noted on the back.
On the front is a re-setting in typographic terms of an early work by Finlay "lackblockblack" but now displayed twice in two similar square text blocks.
The reworking of the original concrete poem in homage to Malevich is given a new meta level by the placing of it twice in geometric relationship to each other. Malevich's black square is not only shown in each text but in the overall composition of the work which abstractly is structured like a Supremacist painting.
We believe this work was created at Bath University during John Furnival's stint in Bath as a tutor when he invited Finlay to come and work with his design group . Eavelines Pondlines was produced at that time but so was this print which would date it as c. 1968. Limitation unknown but not too many. In VG+ condition.

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16 Jul

Posted at 10:57h in Artist's Postcards

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1968
16.8 x 12.4cm, 2pp. The card show various forms of nets used by different types of fishing boats around a invisible circle and the final word is Planet - referencing the missing circle and the fact such nets are used all around the globe. The obvious joke also being that the word planet ends in NET - and that we are all linked in a single global eco-structure. Planet is also in a lighter tone of black than the others.
Murray has this as Card 4.16. Murray mis-identifies (not unusual) the date here - on the back it is clearly 1968 but the Catalogue Raisonne has it as 1969. ...

18 Jun

Posted at 22:12h in Artist's Books

Nottingham: Tarasque Press, 1968
25.6 x 10.4cm, 20pp plus tissue end papers and original card covers. Printed typographic dustjacket. An artist's book published by Stuart Mill's press - seven couplet poems (poems that have two lines, one above the other separated by a thick line) by Finlay are illustrated below by Robert Frame. Each first line has a subject and ends with the word poem - indicating the word or letters below ARE the poem.
One such poem is

The Windmill's Poem
---------------------
X

The X of course being a letter that looks like the sails of a windmill.

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01 Jun

Posted at 17:33h in Invitation Cards

Birmingham: Ikon Gallery Limited, 1968
23 x 20.5cm, 2pp b/w offset. Announcement leaflet for a solo show of sculptures and maquettes and other works. The short essay on the back is quite insightful and notes that it is not a large show. One b/w image of the glass work ROCK/WAVE on the front.
Finlay's first ever one man show was only two months earlier at the Axiom Gallery in London.
Slightly torn top left and some edge damage but else VG. Very scarce ephemera....

22 May

Posted at 10:44h in Artist's Postcards

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1968
12.5x 6.8cm, 2pp. The card is the one of a series that reproduce phrases found in journals and newspapers together to tell a quasi-story or visual poem. Here the headline "Zephyr joins Avoch Fleet" is on the surface a tale of a new acquisition by a company of boats - but of course it also can be read as the good fortune of a sail boat fleet catching a good wind. Murray has this as Card 4.14. Fine....

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