21 Apr

Posted at 21:35h in Prints + Posters

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1967
58 x 43cm, pink and black silkscreen. Concrete poem - one of the earliest Finlay prints. The work is one of a number where Finlay is fascinated by the patches to be found on sails (of both boats and windmills) and also references in its title Picasso's early career portrait of a strapping naked young Dutch woman. The image suggests that one should read the symbol and the word as "Crosspatch" - which is someone easily made upset which strangely one would not take from the semi-smiling woman in the Picasso portrait. But then an unmended sail of either a windmill or a boat would cause the sails to misbehave.
The design was created from Finlay's instructions by Herbert Rosenthal. Murray 5.10

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15 Apr

Posted at 09:19h in Page Works & Contributions

Cambridge: Form Magazine, 1967 24 x 24cm, 32pp plus typographic wrappers. This single number from series of magazines edited by Philip Steadman, Mike Weaver and Stephen Bann - here the fourth number which contains a notes, map and a detailed review of the Brighton Concrete Poetry Exhibition to which Finlay showed two major sculptural works - Sailors' cross and Purse-Net Poem. The former was c. 1.2m high and the latter 2.4 x 1m in side - both collaboraitons with Henry Clyne.
Otherwise there are articles on the Black Mountain College, Albers 'Graphic Tectonics', 'What is Kentetism' ?, two essays by Charles Biederman, poems by Anselm Hollo. a review of Mecano magazine.
This is more of a review of Finlay's contribution to the event rather than actual works included by Finlay but we have decided to place this in the Pageworks & Contributions section of this site because of Finlay's earlier contributions to the same magazine which was after all edited by his friend and often essayist Bann who had curated much of the Brighton show. VG+ example.

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14 Apr

Posted at 09:04h in Miscellany

Brighton: Sussex Outlook, 1967
44 x 32cm, 12pp(self cover) - a tabloid newspaper published by students at the University of Sussex, which was a special issue considering the events at the Brighton festival including the double page feature on the concrete poetry exhibition that Finlay figured so prominently in. Two works are repriuced black on white (Cythera and roSY fAr blacK and a lengthy and informed text by Nigel Maslin who quotes Finlay and Bann amongst others. Rare. VG+ although browned a bit over fifty years.

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17 Mar

Posted at 16:48h in Page Works & Contributions

Edinburgh: M. MacDonald, 1967 21.8 x 14.2cm, 48pp plus card covers. A single number (nr 23) of Alan Riddle's Scottish poetry magazine which includes a 10 page section on "Concrete Numbers". Poems by Tom Clark, Edwin Morgan and Riddle himself are presented along with five by Finlay: Funnel Geography (2), Line Boats, Purse-Net Boat, 2. From the Yard of Thomas Summers & co. and 3 Blue Lemons. Other traditional poetry is also included by Norman McCaig and Tom Buchan amongst others. VG+. ...

28 Feb

Posted at 20:23h in Prints + Posters

Napoli: Linea Sud, 1967
22 x 16cm, unpaginated (40pp) plus one fold out page and original printed wrappers. A single number of this avant garde art journal here dedicated to experimental and visual poetry (poesia visiva). Included are L. Caruso, G. Desiato, E. Villa, I. Isou, M. Lemaitre, (unusually this journal includes Lettrisme as experimental visual poetry when it is often overlooked) J.P. Garnier and others. However importantly there are also two folded poem silkscreen posters by Ian Hamilton Finlay (each opens to 60 x 36cm) which are different in format to other prints of the same works - one is Planet which is printed in brown and somewhat loosely - and the other - is SEEM SEA which appears to be very similar to the Wild Hawthorn Press print SEAM with a similar use of the space between the letters of the word. Printed in blue this is a another nautical inspired work by the poet - with elements of alliteration and homophony playing with the relative placing of the works on the page. This print was only ever published as this insert into the magazine and is very rare - the journal is often found without the prints or with one or the other missing. This is a complete publication in VG+ condition with like prints.
We feel these works should be categorised as prints in their own right and not as contributions to a magazine.

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21 Feb

Posted at 21:15h in Prints + Posters

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1967
57 x 44.5cm, black silkscreen on gold thin paper. A concrete poem where the word "ajar" is repeated several times in a vertical column. Because of the repetition of the same letters "wedge shapes" can be left in the text and the words still read easily diagonally - hence reflecting the angles of an item being "ajar".
Finlay's choice of paper was perhaps a mistake here as it is poor quality and many copies we have seen have the same fault as here - an ugly diagonal crease as the paper is brittle and always seems to us to be wrapping paper that could be better used for wrapping than print. Murray 5.9.

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18 Feb

Posted at 21:13h in Artist's Books

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1967
12.8 x 10.5cm, 32pp. Card covers with printed dust jacket. An artist's book the title of which refers to a wild bird - interestingly not found in Scotland - which had a loud piercing song which is often claimed to be like two stones being hit off each other. The concrete and experimental poems inside take different forms but one new format found here are two phrases one above the other which together give a poetic description.

THE BOAT'S BLUE PRINT
water

On consideration of the couplet one can see that the displacement of water by a boat might be seen in relativistic terms that the water is forming the shape of the boat above. Poetic if not good physics.

This copy has a handwritten dedication by Finlay in blue ink on the inside front cover (to an unnamed friend the sculptor Maxwell Allan from whom's archive this book was found) "Love from Ian, Easter '68." VG+.

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01 Feb

Posted at 16:30h in Poor Old Tired Horse + Broadsides

Stoneypath; Wild Hawthorne Press, 1967
30 x 21cm, 12pp. The twenty-second number of Finlay’s poetry publication - works by Charles Biederman and designed by Philip Steadman (typography). The text uses the metaphor of reading a book and turning a page to how new ideas and times enter life. Two b/w images of forrest landscapes. This number of POTH is much more like a standalone artist's book than the more typical journal. VG+ condition. Scarce.
INSERT:
23 x 14cm, 1pp. Black on blue. A promotional leaflet for Biederman's book Art as the evolution of visual knowledge. Art History Publishers.

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21 Jan

Posted at 21:10h in Prints + Posters

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1967
58.5 x 57.5cm, blue and red/brown silkscreen on white paper. The text which reflects shop store posters is visually over written by a white rhythmic line (in fact a proofreader's correction) which looks like a row of yacht sales. Bel at the bottom of the print is the correction to be inserted - the word "sails". A joke on one level (visual pun) but also a seascape with boats on it (the blue background being the water). Murray 5.8.

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15 Dec

Posted at 09:08h in Page Works & Contributions

Cambridge: Form Magazine, 1966 24 x 24cm, 32pp plus typographic wrappers. This single number from series of magazines edited by Philip Steadman, Mike Weaver and Stephen Bann - here the third number which contains a section called "Poems by Ian Hamilton Finlay" which reproduced four works = Star/Steer, Purse-net Boat, Line Boats and the untitled but usually known as Planet. Interestingly the "circle" of Planet is placed more anti-clockwise than the print in Linea Sur of the same work (the reason may just be a mistake in layout in one of the publications). Purse-net Boa and Line Boats are less commonly found and there is an annotation by Finlay explaining that a Purse-seine is a "new kind of net that makes an actual ring arund the fish. It has been immensely profitable.".
Elsewhere there are works by Ernst Jandl, Paul de Vree, Kenneth Robinson and articles Charles Biederman, 'The Electrical -Mechanical Spectacle' by El Lissitzky., Great Little Magazines No 3: 'G' with work by Kurt Schwitters, Theo van Doesburg, Mies van der Rohe, and Miklos Bandi. VG+

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03 Dec

Posted at 08:38h in Artist's Books

N.p. (Ceres?): s.p. (FInlay? or Tarasque Press?), 1966
23.2 x 11cm, 2pp plus blue printed wrappers. An unusual artist's book which appears to be hand made and has on the front a concrete poem by Finlay:

Arcady ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

then stapled inside is a much smaller sheet of orange paper (Finlay likes the combination of blue and orange - a colour scheme he uses often in prints and books) on which is a handwritten note in blue ink from Finlay: "Happy Christmas and love to Martin from Ian - Christmas '66"
This small book is in VG condition but two stains (brown marks) to the front of the wrappers and some creasing to the top of the sheet
JOINT TO THE BOOK:
20 x 12.5cm, 1pp hand-typed insert on pink typing paper: "Some questions on the poem, for Christmas Day." listing questions that may be asked of the poem and the writer's intent. VG+.t
JOINT TO THE BOOK:
20 x 12.5cm, 1pp hand-typed insert on green typing paper: "A question on the questions, for Boxing Day." Some browning to the centre of the page near the fold else VG.

This is an early and somewhat limited run artist's book, one of the inner typed sheets are mentioned in the Murray catalogue raisonne as the second "miscellaneous" item (7.2) but clearly Murray did not know of the rest of the publication.
Issued at Xmas, the poem by listing all of the letters of the alphabet and comparing them to Arcady (the mythical utopian country - a place to strive to live) Finlay is suggesting the world of letters, words and symbols is an utopian land for poets.
The additional typed letters may just be fun things to do on Christmas Day and Boxing Day but are really clues to how to 'read' the poem. And in the second letter how to 'read' the questions.
The hand typed and hand-written aspects of this publication may indicate that very few were produced - it is not unique given that Murray had an example of one of the letters but we have never seen another copy. Murray has this as being published by the Tarasque Press and that is possible but the hand- made aspects would suggest it was Finlay himself. Reading the published letters between Bann and Finlay for the months around Xmas 1966 does not find any reference to the book at all so we are for now flummoxed.

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