22 Mar

Posted at 21:42h in Artist's Books

Wein: Universal-Edition , 1966
14.5 x 20cm, 118pp. Original card covers. First edition of this German translation of a number of short plays by Finlay originally written in the 50s and translated by Estella Schmid. The Estate Hunters and Walking Through Seaweed are two of the works which were later published in a Penguin Anthology "New English Dramatists" in 1970 (see separate listing in this site).
Pages somewhat browned as the paper employed in the printing was cheap. This copy has an inscription in black ink by Finlay to "To Eduard/ with love from Ian/ 15 March 1966."

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18 Mar

Posted at 14:48h in Artist's Books

Stuttgart: Edition Hansjorg Mayer. 1966
Single sheet, 64 x 48cm, folded three times (24 x 16cm folded size), printed one side only. A single number from the famous Futura series dedicated to the work of Finlay. Five concrete poems are reproduced in b/w....

02 Mar

Posted at 20:23h in Prints + Posters

Nottingham: Tarasque Press, 1966
53.5 x 44.5cm, blue and red on white screenprint. One of Finlay's most important prints - the letters of the word acrobat are spaced out and repeated so that the individual parts of the word "tumble" by being read in all directions. A VG copy framed in wood and glass. Circa 350 printed. Finlay prints Nr: 4.66.2.

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18 Feb

Posted at 22:39h in Miscellany

Nottingham: Trent Book Shop, 1966
25.4 x 10cm, 6pp. Announcement and brochure for this small show of concrete poetry which showed works by dsh, Gael Turnbull, Jeff Nuttall, Hugh MacDiamidf, Bob Sobbing, Edwin Morgan, Jonathan Williams, John Furnival, Tom Clark, and others but NOT FInlay. There is a short poem reproduced which is ascribed to Finlay called “No Thank You, I Can’t Come” but was written by Simon Cutts which is a parody of the format of "Dancers inherit the party" and is a sly and funny dig at Finlay for not participating. VG although a former soft crease top left on the card. Very scarce.

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03 Jan

Posted at 20:33h in Artist's Postcards

London: Chelsea School of Art, 1966
16.4 x 15.9cm. One of Finlay’s earliest paper sculptures - a fold out card publication jointly designed with and printed by Ed Wright at Chelsea School of Art. This is the red version: black print on red card. VG condition. Murray 5.3.
There were three variations - blue, yellow and red each printed black. These are now every hard to find.

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02 Jan

Posted at 20:32h in Artist's Postcards

London: Chelsea School of Art, 1966
16.4 x 15.9cm. One of Finlay’s earliest paper sculptures - a fold out card publication jointly designed with and printed by Ed Wright at Chelsea School of Art. This is the yellow version: black print on yellow card. VG condition. Murray 5.3.
There were three variations - blue, yellow and red each printed black. These are now every hard to find.

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01 Jan

Posted at 20:32h in Artist's Postcards

London: Chelsea School of Art, 1966
16.4 x 15.9cm. One of Finlay’s earliest paper sculptures - a fold out card publication jointly designed with and printed by Ed Wright at Chelsea School of Art. This is the blue version: black print on blue card. VG condition. Murray 5.3.
There were three variations - blue, yellow and red each printed black. These are now every hard to find.

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18 Nov

Posted at 13:54h in Artist's Books

n.p. : The Wild Flounder Press, 1962
11.7 x 17cm, 32pp. Card wrappers with blue on brown typographic design dust jacket. Finlay's third book of poems - as with other early Finlay poetry the language is Scots with touches of Doric. The poems all relate to animals and other creatures ("inseks" and a "fush") and there are papercuts by John Picking and Pete McGinn. This is the fifth edition of this book and the orientation and design of the dust jacket has been changed. There is a hand written ink dedication on the half title "For Paul (Robertson) Pette McGinn / 05". VG+ condition.

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15 Nov

Posted at 19:28h in Artist's Postcards

Edinburgh: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1965
22.8 x 11.3cm, 4pp. Inner pages are black, text is only on front and back of card.
The text is printed blue on the front of the card and yellow on the back. The text is as follows:

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

and the back is the same only the ! is replaced by a question mark.
The front of the card is an exclamation about the experience of looking at things - the sky is blue, it is far away, it seems sad (blue) and yet small and white (clouds). The back by a simple change of punctuation indicates doubt.
The title of the card references the Russian artist Kasimir Malevich and the name he gave to the abstract art he developed from 1913 characterised by basic geometric forms and colours. The world is a simple place it seems to say.
This is the last of Finlay's earliest Standing Poems - he turned to publishing more standard formats of postcards for a while but returned later with D1 and the 4 sails works to the format.

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22 Oct

Posted at 20:02h in Exhibition Catalogues

London: Institute of Contemporary Arts, 1965
20.5 x 21cm, 82pp plus card covers. Spiral bound. An anthology of experimental and concrete poetry which was published as the exhibition catalogue for a show at the ICA of the same title. Curated by Jasia Reichardt - who also wrote the long text - this was a breakthrough exhibition which brought works by Ian Hamilton Finlay, Jiri Kolar, Hansjorg Mayer, Pedro Xisto, Ladislav Novak, Dieter Rot, and numerous others to the attention of the British public.
Finlay like the others has a short biography and then Reichardt lists a number of works and publications up to 1965. EarthShip (the rare paper sculpture) is reproduced in b/w and a letter from Finlay to Pierre Garnier from 1963 is also printed which could be regarded as the former poet's credo. Similar texts for the other artists. VG+.

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