Ian Hamilton Finlay - Unoriginal Sins

24 Feb TRUE VINE “AFTER BEN NICHOLSON”. LETTERS AND NUMBERS. 1997.

Posted at 10:26h in Prints + Posters

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1997
60 x 27cm linocut in black/brown on white paper. Drawing after Ben Nicholson by Gary Hincks.
The images are a repeating reproduction of a fishing boat box end although the letting at the bottom consists of the initials of Ian Hamilton Finlay, Gary Hincks and the Wild Hawthorn Press. Sadly we do not know and cannot find the origin Nicholson print this is based on - many of Finlay's later prints reproduced works inspired by Nicholson. We also believe there was a green print variant of this work. VG.

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20 Feb CLINKER BUILT. 1997.

Posted at 16:20h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1997
6 x 2cm, 4pp. One of three cards issued by the press that displays the effects of the "clinker" method of boat building where the edges of hull planks overlap each other. The boat number (which for Finlay is often a poetic construct anyway) is broken up by the irregular sides of the hull. The drawing is by Gary Hincks. VG+.

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04 Feb RUBBER STAMPS FROM THE LITTLE SPARTA WAR. 1997. ONE OF 100 COPIES.

Posted at 20:13h in Artist's Books

Glasgow: WAX366 for Morning Star Publications. 1997
14.5 x 20.5cm, 28pp plus brown boards with attached title label. Reproductions of 13 rubber stamp impressions from stamps that Finlay produced during the Little Sparta War. This was one of 100 numbered copies. Very scarce. In fine condition.

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15 Jan BEES/BOATS. 1997.

Posted at 16:14h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1997
11 x 16cm, 1pp. A quote from Virgil is repeated twice:

-- THEY lightly skim,
And gently sip the dimply river's brim.

One quotation is allocated by Finlay as being about bees, the other boats. VG+.

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09 Jan ROWS OF BEANS. 1997.

Posted at 17:31h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1997) 7.4 x 6.5cm, 4pp. Artist's postcard a drawing by Gary Hincks of a row of growing beans above which a model airplane has been placed on a string and thin stake presumably to keep birds off the planting.

A text internally reads:

Row of beans
And one old bomber
To scare the birds.

It appears this drawing was from an actual such installation in the garden of Andrew Whittle's Rose Cottage. Whittle was a stone carver and a collaborator with Finlay. VG+.

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23 Dec MIDSHIP SECTION. 1996. HAND SIGNED BY FINLAY TO HIS SON.

Posted at 13:05h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, Christmas 1996
14 x 15.2cm, 4pp card. A drawing by Gary Hincks of a cross section of the midship area of a boat. The parts of the structure are all printed in black except one "carling" which is in red. In shipbuilding, carlings are two pieces of timber laid fore and aft under the deck of a ship, from one beam to another, directly over the keel. Carlings hold the ship together. Other meanings of carlings are less known - an old woman (perhaps a witch) and a type of pea. More than this we do not know - any information about this card would be greatfully received.
This card has a hand-written greeting from Finlay in black ink "love from Dad". VG+

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19 Dec BREAD-AND-BUTTER HULL. 1996.

Posted at 12:39h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
14 x 15.2cm, 2pp. A balsa woodcut by Gary Hincks of a "bread-and-butter hull". Such hulls are used for models and they are hulls which are carved with an open top and the deck constructed using conjoined (by glue in a model) lengths of wood such as might be found on a real ship. Finlay's love of boat models has lasted most of his adult life and one can imagine he sees the very name of such constructions to be a wonderful poetic metaphor. VG+.

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18 Dec L.E. LEARNER EDITOR. 1996.

Posted at 12:35h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
14.8 x 10.5cm, 1pp. A symbolic image which represents a plate to be "worn on Andreas Muller's car" to suggest that he is a "Learner Editor". Finlay was upset by an article in Between Landscape Architecture and Land art by Udo Weilacher which Muller was the Architectual Editor for. VG+.

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15 Dec THREE GATES. ON THE WAY TO LITTLE SPARTA. CHRISTMAS 1996.

Posted at 09:49h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
15 x 24cm, 18pp plus printed green boards. Artist's book with nine b/w photographs by Robin Gillanders of the path to Little Sparta which in turn shows the ground, the gate from a little distance and then the sign on the gate. The first sign informs the public that "Following the authority's action against the Garden Temple Little Sparta is closed to the public". The second announces that "Strathclyde Region made war on little Sparta/Strathclyde Region is no more." - an adaption of a Committee of Public Safety announcement about Lyons and the final biting sign "Closed with the support of the Scottish Arts Council" which is a parody of the usual acknowledgement statement the SAC required to gain funding.
This was Finlay's retort at the end of the "Little Sparta Wars" where Strathclyde Regional Council fought with the artist over a ratings issue of a building they claimed to be an art gallery while Finlay believed to be a Garden Temple. By closing Little Sparta and claiming the Garden Temple was reclassified as a "store" then Finlay found a way of ending the dispute allied to the fact that Strathclyde Region was abolished due to the UK Government's reorganisation. His dislike to the Scottish Arts Council remained however as he felt they had not given him any support at all in his fight and the book quotes Andrew Nairne, Visual Arts Director of the SAC as saying "Little Sparta should be sacrifices to the greater good of the arts in Scotland" which is astonishing now that Little Sparta is regarded by many as the major artistic venture in Soctland of the 2oth centrury.
Very good + condition and an interesting documentation of the end of the dispute as much as an artist's book.

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14 Dec SOUTH COAST SAILS. 1996. TWO CARDS.

Posted at 12:29h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
Two cards, both 6.8 x 7.6cm, 4pp. Both cards have the same text and only differ in colour - one light blue, the other cerise. The front of the cards both have SOUTH COAST SAILS printed vertically in three columns and then in the final column the letters of SAILS become the first letters of Sunset/Amber.Indigo/Lovely/Still. South Coast Sails are a company who supply sails to the boat trade. VG+.

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09 Dec GEE DEES. 1996.

Posted at 11:14h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
10 x 13.9cm, 4pp. The front of the card has a b/w image of a model shop complete with a model boat. Inside Finlay lists imaginary places:

Atlantis, Xanadu, The Heperides, Tir-na-nOg, Arcadia
\ and below notes the name of a company that specialises in model making - Gee Dees.
The models are fantasies - perfect reproductions that are not quite real but imaginary perfect versions of their inspirations. VG+.

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08 Dec TRAVAUX PUBLICS/PUBLIC WORKS. 1996.

Posted at 13:30h in Exhibition Catalogues

Peninsula and Van Abbemuseum, 1996
20.5 x 25.4cm, 80pp. Printed green cloth boards. Exhibition catalogue for a major group show of public works which includes many important artists including Robert Barry, Thomas A Claek, Hamish Fulton, Douglas Gordon, Jenny Holzer, Joseph Kosuth, Richard Long, Hans Waanders, Lawrence Weiner and others including Finlay.
Finlay's work is ICI ON DANSE - which is a neon based on the inscription found at the Bastille one year on when the site was transformed into a faux forrest and monument for a celebration. The slogan comes tfrom a translated text by Camille Desmoulins who can be credited being one of the people who initiated the attack on the prison which is usually regarded as the start of the actual French revolution. VG+.

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