24 Jun

Posted at 15:12h in Prints + Posters

Minneapolis : Phil Gallo at the Hermetic Press, 1986 28 x 40cm, yellow printed folder in the form of an envelope content of 5 "visual poems" on various papers:
1) A Discrete Sign on the Steinway., by Jonathan Williams. One of 130 copies.
2) My Lipstick.from His Lips.To Your Teeth, by Phil Gallo, edition limited to 100 copies.
3) EMPO POEM, by Karl Kempton, edition limited to 100 copies
4) Language, by Scott Helmes, edition limited to 100 copies
and Finlay's contribution:
5) Strawberry Hill "Precipices, Mountains.," by Ian Hamilton Finlay, edition limited to 140 copies. 35.5 x 17cm, 1pp. The print is a letterpress on deckled paper - which quotes Horace Walpole on his intent to create a "little Gothic Castle at Strawberry Hill". Below that quotation is a further quotation from Walpole (the son of the then British Prime Minister) describing the environment on Strawberry Hill namely "Precipices, mountains, torrents, wolves, rumblings" and the below that a final pairing of "Wild cats, Corsairs...

19 Jun

Posted at 14:52h in Exhibition Catalogues

London:British Museum Publications, 1986
24 x 19cm, 64pp plus card covers. Exhibition catalogue displaying a range of contemporary British medals. Finlay produced 6 different medals all of which are reproduced in b/w with details. VG+.

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07 Jun

Posted at 18:05h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1986
19.1 × 11.7cm, 1pp blue on white artist's card with a drawing by Gary Hincks. The drawing shows a watering can in a floral garden setting.
The phrase "modest hero" was coined by Bernardin de Saint-Pierre when referring to the ordinary man (and woman) at the centre of the French revolution - but the watering can is a reminder of the Thermidorian reaction as The Directory came to replace the rule of Robespierre and eventually the rise of the dictator Napoleon. VG+.

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30 May

Posted at 09:55h in Prints + Posters

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1986
20.5 x 17.5cm, printed dark outer folder content of a single 20.5 x 17.5cm offset lithograph. The folder has the word "TWILIGHT" printed at the top and inner sheet has "TWILIGHT" above the word "remembers" (in lower case as here). The blue paper references the deepening gloom of the passage of the day into night. But still twilight remembers day in the sense that some light is still to be found before darkness falls in its entirely. VG+.

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29 May

Posted at 19:58h in Invitation Cards

London: Victoria Miro Gallery, 1986
21 x 10.5cm, 42pp announcement card for a solo show. This card has two drawings - one each side - by Gary Hincks that is not reproduced anywhere else as far as we know. The plinth on one side shows a republican rosette with ribbons left with the words "A DAVID. MARAT". The second drawing is of the back of the same plinth but with gallery details over it. David, of course, painted the famous death of Marat painting, here Marat returns the favour with a simple tribute on the stone.
This is strictly an exhibition invite but it also could be regarded as an artist's card which was not released or categorised as such by Finlay. After some consideration we have left it as an announcement. VG+.

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29 May

Posted at 16:16h in Exhibition Catalogues

London: Victoria Miro, 1986
23 x 20.5cm, 12pp plus red card covers. Exhibition catalogue for a solo show - text only, with a "preface" by Stephen Bann which is the only commentary for the exhibition,. VG+.

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27 May

Posted at 09:43h in Prints + Posters

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1986
63.2 x 40.5cm, full colour offset lithograph with seven "cut-outs" to form seed packets. Each packet has the name of one of the guillotined members of Robespierre's Committee for Public Safety who were deposed during the Thermadorian Reaction. The month when that happened was designated as "Arrisoir" in the revolutionary calendar - and the symbol of that month, the watering can is on each packet. Of course, seeds may be regarded as parts of plants that have been separated from the main body - a little like a head in a basket. VG+

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22 May

Posted at 14:06h in Proposals

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1986
Six separate prints - each 27 x 34cm in unprinted folders and outer printed folder. One of 250 copies.
Each print in this portfolio reproduces a drawing or watercolour in one colour for Finlay's six proposals for the garden nurseries in Luton. Each proposal is a definition of a word associated with open nature such as "Flock" but with a classical Greek twist. Drawings were by Gary Hinks.
Ref: Murray 6.18.

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21 May

Posted at 08:53h in Wild Hawthorn Press

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1986
11 x 7.7cm, 16pp with printed card covers. A text by Stoddart on sculptural works installed in the Garden Temple considers in the main just one - Terror is the Piety of the Revolution - where the author claims it is a work open to interpretation but "it clears a no-man's-land between the two factions of Neo-classicists and Modernists."
Murray places this in his catalogue raisonne as the last work in the "Wild Hawthorn Press" section - by which he really means it is the last of the books/works published by other authors who are not Finlay himself. The gap in time between the 13th publication in that section and this one is 20 years - which makes us question that categorisation although Murray is right (without actually saying so) to note that Finlay did not publish any other authors other than himself and collaborations after 1968 (with the cessation of Poor. Old Tired. Horse.), We have kept to Murray's organisation scheme here but with slight qualms. Scarce book - VG+ although very slight rust to one staple

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25 Apr

Posted at 13:23h in Unique Works

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1986
Folded empty DL manilla envelope with black rubber stamp impression with the text: "THE FACTS IN THE CASE OF IAN HAMILTON FINLAY".
This was an original small work sent by Finlay to Peter Townsend. It is a comment on Finlay's fight with Catherine Millet who bizarrely and wrongly accused Finlay of being an anti-semite. The envelope of course had no facts inside it - which was Finlay's view of his accuser's arguments. Unique thus. We presume other such envelopes were created given that Finlay had the rubber stamp made but we have never seen another example.

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