Ian Hamilton Finlay - Unoriginal Sins

15 Dec HIGHLIGHTS. A HOMAGE TO ANDRE DERAIN. 1997. ONE OF ONLY 250 COPIES

Posted at 14:26h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1997
15.2 x 21.4cm, 48pp plus green card covers with tipped on title label. Artist's book with twelve b/w photographs by Robin Gillanders of trees in Little Sparta where Janet Boulton had painted "highlights" directly onto the branches and trunks and Gillanders photographed them on very dull days when there were no actual reflected highlights other than the paint. Each set of three images of each tree gets closer until the last close-up.
In this sense the work is similar to the Fauvist treatment of nature with colour and bright paint highlighting parts of nature - hence why this is a homage to Derrain who with Matisse founded the movement. One of only 250 copies. VG+.

...

14 Nov A CHARACTERISTIC COAL-BURNING STEAM DRIFTER, CIRCA 1930. 1997.

Posted at 10:15h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1997
5.2 x 18.6cm, 4pp, card printed which houses a 5.2 x 18.6cm, 1pp card with tipped on embroidered name tag (in red and white).
The tag reads: "TOM, DICK OR HARRY".

The card notes the boat names of drifters which being boys names are indeed "characteristic" as well as typical of the time. The phrase "Tom, Dick or Harry" is from an idiom - any Tom, Dick, or Harry", meaning anyone thus making the naming convention universal. This card is almost an object multiple but we have decided to retain it in this catalogue as an artist's card. VG+.

...

09 Nov THE FISHING. 1997.

Posted at 19:39h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1997) 6.6 x 6.8cm, 4pp. Artist's postcard a drawing by Gary Hincks of smoke stacks from boats each with a number.

A poem internally reads:

Waves endless
Numbers numberless

Waves numberless
Numbers endless

VG+. ...

30 Oct THONIER. GICLE PRINT OF ORIGINAL PAINTING FOR FINLAY CARD. 1997.

Posted at 20:23h in Miscellany

N.p.: s.p. (Boulton), n.d.
28 x 21cm, full colour giclee print mounted on board of the original watercolour that Finlay commissioned from Boulton for his artist's card and print Thonier. Possibly used in an exhibition. VG+.

...

25 Oct ANTHOLOGY. 1997.

Posted at 13:56h in Invitation Cards

Edinburgh: Morning Star Press, 2002
10.5 x 15cm, 2pp announcement card for the Anthology assemblage publication which Finlay contributed to along with others such as Lawrence Weiner, Richard Tuttle, Thomas A. Clark, Pavel Buchler, David Bellingham, Jackson Mac Low and others. On the front an original photograph with one of the name tags included in the book stitched onto a shirt. VG+. Scarce.

...

14 Oct ZULU. 1997.

Posted at 10:09h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1997 11.5 x 12.8cm, 4pp card with a drawing of a Zulu boat by Gary Hincks. The sails of the ship are black (reflecting the name of the type of boat). Internally Finlay has two texts:

ZULU
Feathers
of cloud
at the masthead

and

Feathers
of foam
at the waist.

The top and bottom of the moving ship show similar features. VG+.

...

10 Oct LINES OF FOAM. 1997.

Posted at 14:31h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1997 11 x 6.4cm, 16pp plus card covers. Artist's book with a drawing by Gary Hincks on the front and internally the text:

lines of foam
strings of foam
, strands of foam
ropes of foam
lacings of foam

which gives poetic metaphors for the way sea water can be caused to foam up when agitated. VG+. ...

28 Sep K. S-R. 1997.

Posted at 09:45h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1997
17.5 x 20.4cm, 4pp, card printed black on cream with the internal text with a landscape linocut by Jo Hincks.
Internally there is a text:

K S-R
Everything has been turned into wood and shaped with an axe till it roughly resembles itself. Wooden roads, wooden colours, wooden suns, wooden pine-needles. A wooden field with wooden stoocks like sails on a sea.

K. S-R. is Karl Schmidt-Rottluff the German expressionist who formed the Die Brücke group. Late in his life he made almost exclusively landscape paintings that reflected his angular style (which looks much like the unsubtle edges of woodcuts). VG+.

...

15 Sep LEMON ON A BLUE CLOTH. 1997.

Posted at 15:28h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1997) 15.3 x 10.6cm, 2pp artist's postcard with a drawing by Jo Hincks on the front of a boat in black but the decking is printed in yellow to hint at a lemon (a common Finlay simile for a boat). The title "Lemon on a blue cloth" makes this clear - the fruit on the blue table cloth is compared with a boat on the sea. VG+....

15 Sep THE PLOWERS PLOWED UPON MY BACK. THEY MADE LONG THEIR FURROWS. 1997.

Posted at 15:20h in Artist's Postcards

Litte Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1997) 8.5 x 21.5cm, 4pp folded card with the silhouette in light brown of a classical rowing boat with the quotation "THE PLOWERS PLOWED UPON MY BACK. THEY MADE LONG THEIR FURROWS." which is from Psalms 129 v.3 and is a poetic vision of how oars cut into the water and the similarity with ploughing the earth. VG+. ...

14 Sep DAS SCHRECKLICHE HINTER DEM SCHONEN. 1997.

Posted at 17:54h in Invitation Cards

Dortmund: Museum am Ostwall, 1997
10 x 21cm, 18pp (single sheet accordion folded) exhibition announcement/handout/catalogue with text on individual works and four full colour images of prints and works and one b/w photographic portrait of Finlay and an image of Little Sparta. VG+.

...

14 Sep IAN HAMILTON FINLAY PRINTS 1963 – 1997. 1997.

Posted at 09:26h in Invitation Cards

Dortmund: Museum am Ostwall, 1997
21 x 10cm, 4pp announcement card and invite to opening for a solo show, Sail Wholemeal print reproduced on the front. VG+.

...