Prints + Posters - Unoriginal Sins

14 Jul WHAT A GOVERNMENT IT IS, 1989.

Posted at 13:24h in Prints + Posters

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
42 x 30cm, red and black on white offset lithograph on satin paper. The text: "Planting trees of Liberty on the scaffold and placing death's scythe in the hands of the law." This was produced as a poster for the Saint-Just Vigilantes - is a epigram by Finlay on the unjust practices of the French revolution's Terror but a text that clearly Finlay felt could be equally applied to Strathclyde Region with whom he was in dispute over the rating of the Little Sparta Temple building - which they claimed was an art gallery, and Finlay claimed was a religious building. VG.

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14 Jul OH PARISIANS. 1989.

Posted at 13:18h in Prints + Posters

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
42 x 30cm, red and black on white offset lithograph on satin paper. The text is a lengthy quotation from Marat; the poisonous revolutionary journalist who condemned many to death via his pen during the Terror. The text is amusingly critical of the Parisian character - Marat might have been a bastard but he was a talented bastard. This print was produced as a poster for the Saint-Just Vigilantes - and by extension is a criticism of Strathclyde Region who had raided Finlay's farm and "stolen" under warrant sale various works from the Temple in a dispute over rates. VG.

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26 Jun TWO LANDSCAPES OF THE SUBLIME. 1989.

Posted at 15:15h in Prints + Posters

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
29.7 x 21cm, b/w lithograph with two parallel drawings by Gary Hincks which have similarities with each other. One a guillotine - the agency of the Terror - and the other a waterfall - in itself a phenomena of nature's violence. FInlay as often draws metaphors from human objects and the power of the landscape. VG.

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27 Apr GROVE. n. AN IRREGULAR PERISTYLE.

Posted at 17:47h in Prints + Posters

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d.
38 x 45cm, black and cream on white laid paper - the image by Gary Hincks is of a grove of trees around a classical temple after WIlliam Stukely. The definition of Grove is "an irregular peristyle" and a quote from Milton. The pristyle is the corridor between a colonnade and the wall of the inner building - hence the definition here suggests the trees are creating a further group of columns around the building. We do not know the date of this work - wee suspect the late 80s. VG+.

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23 Apr SEVEN DEFINITIONS. PERTAINING TO IDEAL LANDSCAPES. 1989.

Posted at 16:11h in Prints + Posters

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1989)
33.5 x 48.5cm, printed folder with calligraphic text by John Nash. Content of seven 33.5 x 48.5cm, 1pp lithographs in folder. Each work is one of Finlay's later "definitions" works - the structure being that of a word such as GROVE followed by a poetic definition and then a longer quotation from a classical source using the word in a manner that reflects the definition. For instance:

PEACE n. according to St. Ignatius of Loyola the simplicity of order

War on the castles, PEACE to the cabins
Slogan of the French revolutionary armies.

All elements fine in like folder.

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26 Feb BICENTENARY TRICOLOUR. 1989.

Posted at 14:59h in Prints + Posters

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
40 x 52cm, blue, red and black offset lithograph.A French flag drawn by Hincks has the texts "LIBERTY FOR SOME/EQUALITY FOR SOME/LIBERTY FOR SOME" respectively on each coloured section. The colours of the tricolour (invented as a compromise early during the French Revolution) were the red and blue: the colours of Paris allied to the white of the king. Later after the king was deposed and killed the flag was retained as the nation's flag and never retired even after the rise of Napoleon. The three texts of the work remind one that the revolutionary ideals did not really ever succeed - in fact, one might argue during the Terror, they had already been broken. VG.

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28 Sep DON’T CAST YOUR REVOLUTIONS BEFORE SWINE. PICABIA SERIES. BLACK OF WHITE VARIATION. 1988.

Posted at 12:37h in Prints + Posters

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1988
30 x 42cm, black on white offset lithograph. One print from a number which Finlay denoted as the Picabia Series (there were red on white versions of these works also). Each of the series is a witty reworking of a well known saying - here "Don't Cast your Revolutions before Swine". A revolution, this poster suggests , should not be wasted on an unwilling or undeserving populus. VG.

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28 Sep SPARE THE BLADE AND SPOIL THE FACTIONS. PICABIA SERIES. BLACK OF WHITE VARIATION. 1988.

Posted at 12:34h in Prints + Posters

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1988
30 x 42cm, black on white offset lithograph. One print from a number which Finlay denoted as the Picabia Series (there were red on white versions of these works also). Each of the series is a witty reworking of a well known saying - here "Spare the Blade and Spoil the Factions". A suggestion that one should be decisive in one's oppression of your opponents. VG.

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28 Sep DON’T PUT ALL YOUR HEADS IN ONE BASKET. PICABIA SERIES. BLACK ON WHITE VARIATION. 1988.

Posted at 12:31h in Prints + Posters

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1988
30 x 42cm, black on white offset lithograph. One print from a number which Finlay denoted as the Picabia Series (there were red on white versions of these works also). Each of the series is a witty reworking of a well known saying - here "Don't Put All Your Heads in One Basket". A reworking of "don't put all your eggs in one basket" but referencing the heads severed from the victims of the Terror. Perhaps revolutionaries should be more careful in how they treat their opponents lest like Robespierre you end up in the same basket.

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28 Sep PARISIANS SPOIL THE FRENCH. PICABIA SERIES. BLACK OF WHITE VARIATION. 1988.

Posted at 12:29h in Prints + Posters

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1988
42 X 30cm, black on white offset lithograph. One print from a number which Finlay denoted as the Picabia Series (there were red on white versions of these works also). Each of the series is a witty reworking of a well known saying - here "Parisians Spoil the French" being a remark that might well be not only a glib comment on Paris and its dwellers (with two possible meanings - one posItive, the other less so) but also a reference to the way Paris dominated the country during the years of the French revolution (and had to put down several violent uprisings as a result).

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26 Sep NEOCLASSICISME REVOLUTIONNAIRE. 1789 – 1989. 1988.

Posted at 14:50h in Prints + Posters

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1988
82 x 54.5cm, black on off white silkscreen. A large print with a drawing by Hincks of a funeral urn draped with a cloth. The style might be regarded as neoclassical. The text below indicates that the urn contains the ashes of possibly someone who died in 1789 or more likely the French Revolution itself in some sense. Finlay produced this work in the year just before the bicentennial of the storming of the Bastille (which many regard as the beginning of the revolution). One of 200 produced.

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25 Jun EVERY EFFECT REMAINS IN ITS CAUSE…. 1988.

Posted at 22:22h in Prints + Posters

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1988
15.4 x 24.4cm, black and light brown on white card - original linocut reproduced in offset lithograph. The print is folded with a text "Every effect remains in its cause, proceeds from it, and reverts upon it." a quote form Proclus, Elements of Theology. The image is of a group of boats close together in a harbour.
When boats are berthed in such a manner there is a tendency for them to move in synchronicity due to the waves. The classical quotation about cause and effect reflects that movement in some poetic manner. VG although there are sadly two ink lines on the outside of the card (where there is no image) and someone stupidly has not realised what the card was.

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