24 May

Posted at 10:07h in Prints + Posters

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1976
43.2 x 55.8cm offset lithograph in green on white paper. Typography by John R. Nash. The "quotation" is from Ovid's Metamorphoses an epic poem of mythology. Here the quotation is from the story of Apollo and Daphne - the duo forced by Eros to be in emotional conflict with Daphne eventually being saved from ravishment by her father the river god turning her into a tree. But here Finlay has altered the text to make it relevant to the French Revolution during the period of the Terror and in particular replacing Apollo with Saint-Just. There is a "paired" print of this work with the original quotation from Ovid unaltered from the translation (see previous print listing here). VG+.

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30 Apr

Posted at 14:19h in Exhibition Catalogues

Paris: ARC, Musée d Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 1987
20.3 x 17.5cm, unpaginated c. 50pp plus card covers and printed typographic dust jacket. Exhibition catalogue for a Finlay solo show from April 30 - June 28, 1987. the text (an essay by Stephen Bann) is in both English and French with each line printed alternatively but in two colours, green and red,; green for French, red for English.
There are 12 colour images of works in situ at the Kroller-Mueller and Little Sparta.VG+.

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16 Apr

Posted at 15:53h in Invitation Cards

San Diego: Stuart Collection University of California, 1987
21 x 15cm, 4pp card for the installation of a new work by Finlay at the university UNDA. Unda is Latin for Wave and the work is sculptural. In the middle pages of the card a Finlay work (with Gary Hincks) is reproduced - it is not the same work as installed but the inscription at the bottom of the card is the same as the work on stone. VG+.

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09 Apr

Posted at 10:06h in Invitation Cards

London: Victoria Miro, n.d. (1987)
12 x 15cm, 4pp. Announcement card for a group show with works by Lothar Baumgarten, Marie Bourget, Thomas Joshua Cooper, Chris Drury, Andy Goldsworthy, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Hamish Fulton, Wolfgang Laib, Nikolaus Lang, Bernard Lassus, Richard Long, Martin Rogers, David Tremlett, and Herman de Vries. The front of the card is a model tank by Finlay and Ian Gardner "Panzer V (Penterai Semi- Reducta) from 1979. VG+.

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06 Apr

Posted at 08:44h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
9.6 x 15.2cm, 1pp. Artist's card with the text "Myriam Salomon owns the Second World War and you are not allowed to mention it." Salomon was Catherine Millet and made public pronouncements about Finlay that linked him to the trial of the former Nazi Klaus Barbie - an actual mass murderer and torturer who was in the Gestapo. Finlay's card is not exactly high art but perhaps can be forgiven when Salomon suggested some similarities between the poet and the real Nazi. VG+.

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03 Apr

Posted at 08:53h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
9.6 x 15.2cm, 1pp. Artist's card.
Louis Treize
Louis Quatorze
Louis Quinze
Louis Seize
Louis Cane
The ascending list of French Kings ends with the name of a French modernist abstract painter who eventually returned to figuration and a more naturalistic style. The list of monarchs ended temporarily the House of Bourbon until the temporary restoration post Napoleon. VG+.

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02 Apr

Posted at 08:34h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
8 x 19cm, 1pp. Artist's card with a one-word poem:
A ONE-WORD POEM FOR THE LADIES OF ART PRESS, PARIS. 1987.
Knitters!
An attack on Catherine Millet and her assistant Myriam Salomon - comparing them to the women who sat next to the guillotine and knitted as victims were decapitated. VG+.

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25 Mar

Posted at 17:07h in Proposals

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
58.0 x 39.5cm, offset lithograph print in original printed folder. The putative monument's elevation and plan by Gary Hincks is printed one above the other.
Finlay's proposal for the work included five straight stemmed silver birch trees planted amongst cobbles and a "tree-column base" at the bottom of the middle tree: tree-column bases were a sculptural innovation by Finlay where the tree could continue to grow (the base was a semi-circle allowing expansion to the back) but the base of the tree would have a permanent stone marker. The base in this proposal was planned to have the letter's R.L.S. - the capitals that Robert Louise Stephenson was often known by.
Finlay regarded the use of the birches symboling of Stephenson's interest in the Scottish landscape and the neo-classical base as a reference to RLS's childhood association with Edinburgh's New Town. The installation was eventually installed in Princes Street Gardens but the birches didn't flourish and had to be later replaced slightly incorrectly.
One of 200 copies released - VG+.

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24 Mar

Posted at 09:14h in Proposals

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
27 × 27cm, black and cream offset lithograph on thick paper in original printed paper folder.
Finlay's proposal for a monument to the Scottish writer was a plaque on rough stone to be set amongst a grove of birch trees. The plaque was to have a "one word poem" on it - "A MAN OF LETTERS. / R.L.S./1850 - 1894". The obvious wit being the use of the capital letters RLS which Stevenson was often referred to by reflected by the term "man of letters" which means someone involved in the literary world.
Fine in like folder.
Unlike some of Finlay's proposals this work was installed in 1989 in Edinburgh's Princes Street Gardens but the original birch trees died and were replaced.
The Public Monuments and Sculpture Association Edinburgh Sculpture Project notes: "Unfortunately, the original birches did not thrive, and were replaced a few months later so that the tree does not line up with the base as Finlay intended. Here, the classical tradition of architecture is returned to its roots in the tree." Still it is one of the very best of Finlay's public art works (unlike the awful fruit baskets at Hunter's Square at the Tron Church only a mile away)
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15 Mar

Posted at 21:11h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
14.6 x 11.1cm, 1pp Artist's card with an image of a drum with sticks printed black on red. The card announces "March 15, 1987. 4th anniversary of Strathclyde Region's Assault on the Garden Temple, Little Sparta: how war flies". VG+.

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13 Mar

Posted at 18:13h in Proposals

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1990 35x 27.7cm, 1pp b/w broadside. Folded twice as issued. A proposal for a public work at the famous Furka Pass in Switzerland - Finlay suggests the Swiss artist Hodler's signature be inscribed on a stone as if the artist is "signing" the landscape that he so often pictured in his work. The broadside reprints a text by Wouter Weijers and three small drawings by Kathleen Lindsley. One of only 200 copies published, this is in VG+....

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