N.p.: n.p., 1987
A standard colour photographic 35mm slide with an image of a Finlay sculptural intervention in the landscape - here the work "A VIEW TO THE TEMPLE." The work was part of the Documenta 8 in Kassel.. The slide was prepared for a book "Art in America" (which is strange given the geographical location of the work pictured). VG+.
...
Paris: Galerie Claire Burrus, 1987
20 x 17cm, 6pp exhibition catalogue for a solo show of 13 sculptural works by Finlay. A long text in French and English by Thomas A. Clark. VG+.
...
Paris: Galerie de l"Estampe contemporaine, 1987
10.5 x 15cm, 4pp announcement card for a solo show with the work "Battle of Midway"on the front. VG+.
...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
12 x 8.5cm, 1pp. Artist's card with a drawing of a bust of Saint-Just. The title has a double meaning - that of a dashing young man and also a reference to the fact that Saint-Just was regarded as the "Angel of Death" by many on the National Convention because of his announcements of those who were to be arrested and probably guillotined. A young blade indeed. VG+.
...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
12 x 8.5cm, 1pp. Artist's card with a none too flattering portrait of one of Finlay's enemies, Catherine Millet, and under neath the title "LA TRICOTEUSE". A tricoteuse was the nickname (a knitting woman) given to the rather bloodthirsty women next to the guillotine who supposedly knitted as the heads dropped. VG+.
...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
21.2 x 19.5cm, printed black on dark grey outer folder content of a single 21.2 x 19.5cm offset lithograph on bright red paper paper.
The folder has " DER UNTERGANG DES ABENDLANDES" printed at the top which is a reference to Oswald Spengler's theoretical history "Decline of the West" from 1918. The inner sheet has "effulgence of the robin" printed black in the middle of the sheet all in lower case.
Spengler (a controversial historian) can clearly be seen as a classicist and it is tempting to think Finlay is approving here of his belief in the higher aesthetics of an earlier age. Additionally the phrase" From the Nabis Series" references the short lived Nabis group of painters -Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Denis, Paul Ranson, Édouard Vuillard, Ker-Xavier Roussel, Félix Vallotton, and Paul Sérusier. symbolists who took their name from the Hebrew nebiim (which means prophet). The bright red of the insert on one level references the bright colours of the group but also may well be seen as the classical a symbol of redemption. VG+>
...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
12 x 8.5cm, 1pp. Artist's card with a photograph of a sculpted head of the author of Follies. A National Trust Guide which had angered Finlay for its description of Little Sparta. The head was later used in the sculpture Three Heads (now in the Glasgow Museum of Modern Art) - the sculpture shows the three heads of Waldemar Januszczak, Gwyn Headley and Catherine Millet in baskets as if they had been guillotined. Finlay was not that forgiving a man in his middle age.
Interestingly the work went missing from the storage of the museum and had to be remade in 2013. VG+.
...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
12 x 8.5cm, 1pp. Artist's card with a photograph of a sculpted head of the Guardian critic that Finlay used in the sculpture Three Heads (now in the Glasgow Museum of Modern Art) - the sculpture shows the three heads of Waldemar Januszczak, Gwyn Headley and Catherine Millet in baskets as if they had been guillotined. Finlay was not that forgiving a man in his middle age.
Interestingly the work went missing from the storage of the museum and had to be remade in 2013. VG+.
...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
16.8 x 11.5cm, 1pp. Artist's card with a photograph of Greyfriars Bobby: the famous Edinburgh dog which has a statue commemorating its loyalty to its master near Greyfriars Kirk churchyard seemingly living on the grave he was buried in.
Brount was the name of Robespierre's faithful dog which he apparently loved and was left behind when he was guillotined. The parallel appealed to Finlay it seems. VG+.
...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
12.5 x 11.5cm, 2pp card. An appropriated photograph of German soldiers celebrating a direct hit from their artillery battery on a house is sub-captioned by Finlay "Saint-Just Vigilantes celebrate a direct hit on elements of the Headley and Meulenkamp Division of the National Trust". Finlay keeping up his attacks on the duo who offended him by mis-representing Little Sparta as a "Folly" in a book. Meulenkamp additionally used the controversy with Catherine Millet accusing Finlay of pro-Nazi sympathies to attack him again in a Dutch article. It is fair to assume that Finlay chose an image of German soldiers here as a provocation rather than to show any pro-fascist feelings. VG+
...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
156.5 x 11.7cm, 2pp card. Two quotations - the first from Cobban's History of Modern France which explains how the Great Fear during the French revolution was based on false reporting and a quote from an unidentified London newspaper that Jonathan Cape (who Finlay was at war with over the Follies book) were promoting rumours that were promoted by the Saint-Just Vigilantes group "a romantic Scottish nationalist group". Clearly the S-J Vigilantes were not per se nationalist (some may have been, others certainly were not) and Finlay here is pointing to the way Jonathan Cape tried to befuddle the argument by faking up stories. VG+
...
N.p.: n.p., 1987
A standard COLOUR photographic 35mm slide with an image of a Finlay sculptural intervention in the landscape - here the work "WOOD WIND SONG" (for a discussion of this work see separate listing on cards). The work is to be found in Little Sparta, Scotland. The slide was prepared for a book "Art in America" (which is strange given the geographical location of the work pictured). VG+.
...