27 Aug

Posted at 22:55h in Prints + Posters

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1985
48.5 x 32.5cm, green on cream paper offset lithograph with two drawings by Hincks one above each other. The first is after a landscape Johan Christian Reinhart etched in Rome in 1811. The second is with Finlay's addition of the word "W AVE" on the stone opening for the spring. In the Reinhart original the word in Greek `"XAIPE " means Hail or Farewell and Finlay notes that as being in relation to death. The AVE part of Finlay's text is the Latin equivalent to XAIPE but with the addition of the W (a little distance from the rest of the lettering) then the meaning is altered to that of water.
This was one of only 250 such prints made. In VG condition in like folder.

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19 Aug

Posted at 14:47h in Exhibition Catalogues

Sydney: Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1985)
30 x 21cm, 160pp plus card covers. Exhibition catalogue for an Australian travelling exhibition of British art. Finlay has 4pp of text and works as well as one of his sundials as frontispiece. VG+.

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12 Aug

Posted at 21:24h in Proposals

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1985
25 x 29cm, black on green folder lithograph in folder content of two lithographs after drawings by Michael Harvey of the proposed stone gateway and a textual explanation thus: 'Implicit in the column is the natural tree, which was likewise inhabited by its nymph or dryad. Here, in place of the column, there is the pilaster, and the dryads are present in the 'distanced' form of the text derived from J.K.Lavater's 'Physiognomical Fragments' (1802). The design is based on that for a garden gateway by the Elizabethan architect Indigo Jones."

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23 Jul

Posted at 20:21h in Photographs

Peninsula: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1985
50 x 40cm, silver gelatine print. The photograph of the stream by Robin Gillanders is combined with a short poem by Finlay.

the brown stream
the black stream
the blue stream
the silver stream

The same phrase is repeated with only the colour changing each time. Gillander's photograph is in b/w so one might imagine it in different colours as per the poem - and the water having a different history each time - silver being related to fish or speed, blue in reflections or the sea, black from coal or dirt or darkness and brown from pollution or soil.
This edition is from a portfolio called ‘Dear Stieglitz,’ named in homage to Alfred Stieglitz, the photographer and gallery owner who published the art-photography journal ‘Camera Work’ in the early Twentieth century.
On the reverse is a label with details of the portfolio and image and it is signed by Finlay and numbered in pencil from the edition of only 35 copies. VG+.

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07 Jul

Posted at 10:45h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1985
10.2 x 24.6cm, 1pp red on white card. The text reads: "FEWER SCULPTURES! MORE STATUES! LIVE AMMUNITION IN COMMUNITY ARTS!"
Clearly a provocation in response to events and Finlay's turning to opposing the council and his other enemies with verbal aggressions. VG+.

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24 Jun

Posted at 13:10h in Photographs

40.5 x 30.5cm, b/w silver gelatine original photograph of Finlay in front of one of his French revolution inspired sculpture "TERROR IS THE PIETY OF THE REVOLUTION". This was the portrait of Finlay taken by Christopher Barker for his book on British Poets. The correspondence between Finlay and Barker arranging the photo-shoot (Finlay agreed but did not enjoy the experience) is online on this site in the letters section. Sadly this print has a big paper lack bottom right on it but thankfully what is lost is a bit of the stonewall work. else Vg. Probably not unique but not many printed at the time.

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05 Jun

Posted at 18:34h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1985
5.8 x 20.5cm, 1pp card printed black and red on cream with a drawing of a machine gun by Ron Costley which has holes in the barrel (to prevent over heating). Finlay has used this motif in prints and elsewhere to reflect the pan-pipes of the god Apollo.
Additional are several epigrams from the poet's "More Detached Sentences" (on gardening) and a note: "Owing to practical necessities of Little Sparta's War with Strathclyde Region, the Garden and Garden Temple are presently closed to the public. The provisional government of Little Sparta is revolutionary until the peace.".
This card is dated 1986 in both the flawed Murray Catalogue Raisonne and the Wild Hawthorn Press' own online listing of artist's cards - it is however clearly 1985 - not only printed on the card but additionally this example is hand addressed by Finlay to Harry Warschauer (and with a red rubber stamp impression - STRATHCLYDE REGION DER UNTERGANG DES ABENDLANDES) and the franking to the stamp is clearly dated "5 June 1985". We have restored this item to the correct date in this catalogue. VG+.

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02 Jun

Posted at 18:09h in Letters + Documents

Little Sparta: s.p (Finlay), n.d. (c. 1985) 30 x 21cm, 1pp offset sheet with a text by Finlay regarding a proposed "Free Arts scheme": essentially a method by which potential buyers of art can make regular advance payments to a bank account. The proposal did not take place. Staple top left is a little rusty and the additional pages to which it was originally attached (a xerox of a letter to Christopher Macintosh) is catalogued separately here as the two documents were not related. VG+....

07 May

Posted at 10:49h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1985
21 x 21cm (unfolded), 2pp red on white card. The text "EVERY GOAL NEGATES" comes from the German atheist philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach in his book 'Thoughts on Death and Immortality' - in full it is 'Every goal negates; where there is no destruction, no negation and sacrifice of independent existence, there is no purpose." - emphasising the role of destruction and loss in the world.
Here Finlay has made this into a paper dart which is a weapon of sorts carrying Feuerbach's message to the person hit by the paper. VG+.

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23 Apr

Posted at 20:10h in Prints + Posters

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1985
42 × 32.1cm, red and black silkscreen on cream paper. A diagram that can be cut out and formed into a Corinthian capital for a column (drawn by Nicholas Stone). On the diagram there is a definition: "CAPITAL n. a republican crown."
A republic is a state without a king - hence it would not have a crown. The Corinthian capitals (also known as orders) is the last developed of the three principal classical orders of ancient Greek and Roman architecture and hence regarded as the most advanced - and it was also the most ornate (somewhat like a bejewelled crown). There is a tension in this work by Finlay that is never quite resolved. Perhaps the other meanings of capital are also important here - as the uppercase beginning letter of a sentence and/or the city in which the government (perhaps a republican governement) is based. Fine condition.

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19 Apr

Posted at 16:03h in Monographs & Essays

London: Reaktion Books, 1985 28 x 21cm, 318pp plus boards and dust jacket. Hardback first edition of one of the largest of Finlay monographs. Texts by Abrioux and introductory notes and commentaries by Stephen Bann with over 370 illustrations, 68 in full colour and 19 in two colours. With by Stephen Bann. Slight wear to dj else VG+.

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