23 May

Posted at 16:46h in Prints + Posters

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1991
43 x 41cm, four colour offset lithograph with a reproduction of the painting "The Poor Fisherman" by Puvis De Chavannes - however the mast of the boat has had a revolutionary cockade been added to it. - hence adding a political edge to the image more than the original solely religious intent.
This was a limited edition print issued at the same time as the exhibition at the Talbot Rice Gallery that examined the work in some detail and responses to the work.
There was also an exhibition poster for the show based on the same image and the cover of the exhibition catalogue and invitation to the vernissage.
Fine condition. Limitation unknown but usually 300 - 350 for Finlay prints.

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09 May

Posted at 11:32h in Object + Paper Multiples

Edinburgh: Graeme Muray Gallery, 1991
5 x 1m, printed enamel lapel badge with metal safety pin clasp. The text is from one of Finlay's most famous works - EVENING WILL COME THEY WILL SEW THE BLUE SAIL - which was firstly created as a wooden sculpture in Finlay's garden and later was printed in two editions as prints. For a lengthy commentary on that work see the separate listing in this collection under Prints + Posters. Limitation unknown. VG+ example.

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02 May

Posted at 21:29h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1991 9.8 x 7.8 cm, 8pp (printed recto only). A folding card with three short poetic texts by Finlay.

First meeting (Chaplinesque)
The hole in her sock

was his lovers' moon.

One of 250 examples printed. VG+. ...

26 Apr

Posted at 08:42h in Exhibition Catalogues

Uthrecht: Centraal Museum, 1991
24.5 x 27cm, unpaginated - c. 56pp plus boards. A major festival of public art based on neon and light works. Finlay has a major neon work "C'est-dans-la place du Marche que l'on recontre le plus souvent les reclus" which was placed in the market street,. A quotation from Rousseau, the spectacular neon is reproduced in colour full page. Other major artists included were Jenny Holzer, Ilya Kubukov, Les evine, Lucebert, Bruce Nauman, Richard Prince and Sarkis. as well as others. Some wear to boards else VG+....

24 Apr

Posted at 18:26h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1991
20.0 x 7.3cm, 8pp (single accordion folded sheet). A scythe is evolved over three panels into firstly a lightning strike as a blade to a single S from the nazi SS logo in the third panel. Drawing by Gary Hincks. The forth panel has a long text written by a 17th century Monk Abraham a Sancta Clara who compares death as a reaper, a gardener, a player and thunderbolt which not only strikes down the poor but also the powerful. The alteration in the design of the blade not only reminds one of the origin of the SS symbol and the German fascist interest in Nordic origins but also the aggression and death that they brought to the world. VG+. This is a variant on a very similar card (with the same name and text) which Finlay issued in a smaller size in 1990. VG+.

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22 Apr

Posted at 22:48h in Poems in folders

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1991
11 x 15.5cm, 4pp blue outer folder. Internally a 11 x 15.5cm, 4pp sheet with a poem:

SUBLIME

Where the eagles circle in
darkness, the sons of the
Alps cross from precipice
to precipice, fearlessly,
on the flimsiest rope
bridges.

In the Place de la Revolution
the man-made mountain
torrent clatters
and clatters.

The first half of the poem is from Hegel, the second Finlay refers to the increasing pile of heads (which did not really happen but is a popular historical meme) caused by the clattering guillotine.
This is one of a series of works which the Wild Hawthorn Press denoted as "Poems in folders". VG+.

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21 Apr

Posted at 08:35h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1991
8.2 x 10cm, 8pp with printed blue card covers. Picturesque was a style of painting which stressed the pretty and the kitsch and here Finlay cites in sarcastic terms the view that:
"It is hardly necessary to remark how the view from the house would be enlivened by the smoke of a cottage - " which is a direct quote from Humphry Repton the 18th century gardener and proponent of the style.
Finlay conjoins on the page opposite "- or a Picasso portrait by the inclusion of a recognisable pipe." which forces a modernity onto Repton's rather passe vision. VG+

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19 Apr

Posted at 08:49h in Exhibition Catalogues

Frankfurt: Frankfurt Kunstverein, 1991
30 x 21cm, 44pp plus card covers. Exhibition catalogue in the form of a catalogue raisonne of all the the publications of the Wild Hawthorn Press including prints, cards and books etc. The publication seems be based entirely on the Graeme Murray raisonne of the previous year and has the same mistakes in it although it was compiled by Pia SImlig. VG+....

08 Apr

Posted at 11:57h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1991) 14.6 x 10.4cm, 4pp artist’s card with a drawing of a guillotine and the text:

aA Reflection on the French Revolution
No rose without a thorn

The guillotine is seen as required to support the revolution - Finlay often noted that the outcome of the "purity" of the Revolution's commitment to virtue was the terror. VG+. ...

15 Mar

Posted at 15:59h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1991 30.8 x 12cm, 200 plus card covers and green printed dustjacket. Artist's book based on various Greek myths. Finlay supplies six small one line poems each with a single repeated illustration by Solveig Hill - such as:

APHRODITE

Oil, in the air's cool jar.

and

CHLORIS

The birds awake the dawn.

VG+. ...

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