21 Jan

Posted at 14:32h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1994
15.3 x 14cm, 2pp card displaying Robin Gillander's photograph of a work in the garden of Little Sparta dedicated to Lorine Niedecker (a friend and a poet published by Finlay in some of his earliest initiatives. The work is hard to read because of shadows.
The image was also used in a book in honour of the dead poet.
This example has been stamped and posted and hand-addressed by Finlay to his son Eck. VG+ with minor postal marks.

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15 Dec

Posted at 14:21h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1993
9.7 x 9.2cm, 4pp Christmas card printed black on white with a drawing after John Flaxman by Gary Hincks of "Sleep and Death conveying the body of Sarpedon to Lycia" - from Homer's 'Iliad'.
Finlay uses the image to add a new legend:
A flak-damaged B-17 finds a friendly escort in enemy airspace. Level contrails are those of out-going USAAF formations.
A previous published card by Finlay also updates a re-working of Flaxman to the second world war.
Sarpedon was a prince in the Trojan war who was killed and sent home for burial with the help of the gods. This example is in original mailing envelope and has the message "happy Chrstmas from Ian in red felt tipped pen over the inner blank double pages. VG+.

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15 Dec

Posted at 13:22h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1993
11 x 7cm, 44pp plus green embossed boards. An artist's book with sixteen line drawings of various roses by Gary Hincks with the names of appropriate boats and their harbour numbers below. The last rose is XMAS ROSE and the name printed in red.
A long time interest in using boat names and numbers as poetry and sound elements as well as identifying certain boats with flowers is here again prominent.
This was published as a Christmas gift by Finlay in an edition of only 250 copies. VG+.

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22 Nov

Posted at 23:05h in Poems in folders

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1993
17.5 x 14.5cm, 4pp light green outer folder with printed title. Internally a 17.5 x 14.5cm, 4pp sheet with two concrete poems left and right
The left poem repeats the word oval as a central spine to the work with the words leaf blue song pink foal grey on both sides with the letters emboldened to create a rough oval of the letters (see photograph). The right hand poem has the same physical structure but the words leaf blue song pink foal grey become the central spine of the design and the word oval is repeated above, below and on both sides.
This is one of a series of works which the Wild Hawthorn Press denoted as "Poems in folders". VG+.

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09 Nov

Posted at 14:04h in Artist's Books

Lenbachhaus: Stadtische Galerie, 1993
11 x 10.4cm, 40pp plus printed brown boards. Artist's book with drawings of wild flowers by Gary Hincks with their common name alongs side their scientific classification. A single text at the end of the book states:
Das Wort aus Stein: Wildflower. (Trans. The word of stone: WIldflower).
which may refer to the strength of such flowers (oft called weeds) in surviving.
JOINT WITH: 11 x 10.4cm, 12pp accordion folded insert. A textual commentary by Patrick Eyres.
Both one of 750 examples printed on the occasion of a German exhibition in Lenbachhaus. VG+.

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24 Sep

Posted at 21:36h in Letters + Documents

Little Sparta: Finlay, 24th September 1993
An original vintage xerox 30 x 21cm, 1pp with a round robin letter from Finlay to all of the Saint-Just Vigilantes.
The letter thanks all those who wrote to the Scottish Arts Council to support Finlay in his battle against the Strathclyde region. However Finlay informs his supporter that the SAC have decided not to make any further statements on the matter other than their replies to those letters. SAC had suggested that Little Spartas legally become a Trust but Finlay points out that is not possible given the region's extant legal actions. He also indicates that any impression that the SAC was helping the financial upkeep of the garden was not true - they had offered a "very small sum of money" with conditions attached which made it impossible to accept.

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18 Sep

Posted at 10:43h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1993
11.4 x 8.9cm, 4pp card with a photograph variation by Antonia Reeve of the Upper Pool in Little Sparta printed black on green along with a poem:

Cascade

The one
water

sings its
separate

small
pop-songs

as it
falls

A cascade has a double meaning - falling as the water does here - and in music - a descending melody. Finlay finds both appealing. This is apparently a variation of a Louis Zukofsky poem. VG+.

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11 Sep

Posted at 14:11h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1993
17.7 x 6.3cm, 4pp card printed black on yellow with inside a poem:

Folds in its Meadows
melodeon

The homage is to the Russian avant garde painter Mikhail Larionov - one of his works was of an accordion player - the "folds" in its meadows being the billows of the instrument. One of two cards of similar design - the other being for the painter Viktor Borisov-Musatov. VG+.

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10 Sep

Posted at 10:51h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1993
17.7 x 6.3cm, 4pp card printe black on blue with inside a poem:

Balsa & Tissue
TWILIGHT

The homage is to the Russian symbolist painter Viktor Borissov-Mussatov who painted colourful scenes of domesticity. The poem here will no doubt be related to one of the works by the artist - but at this point we cannot identify that work. One of two cards of similar design - the other being for the painter Mikhail Fyodorovich Larionov. VG+.

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