IAN HAMILTON FINLAY

ARTIST’S POSTCARDS

ECHOES SERIES (ARBRE DE LA LIBERTE). 1995.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995 10.5 x 5cm, 4pp card with a 4pp insert. Two drawings - both concrete poems (or Calligrammes) one the original by Guillaume Apollinaire and the other by Ron Costley after Finlay's instruction. Apollinaire's Eloge de l'arbre has the text: "arbre qui fut la displante par Victor Hugo" - praising the socialist writer (the tree that was planted by Victor Hugo), Finlay's reflection becomes "Abre de la liberte et sa floraison"(Liberty tree and its flowering) a reference to the french Revolution and the symbolic trees shown at the feasts and celebrations. A lovely small concrete work. VG+.

THE ANNUNCIATION, AFTER FRA ANGELICO. 1995.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
11.3 x 14cm, 2pp, Artist's card with a photograph of a fishing boat. The title of the card is "The Annunciation, After Fra Angelico" which is a famous fresco in Florence showing an angel telling the supposed virgin Mary that she is pregnant. VG+. We do not know for certain but it may well be that the vessel's name is "The Annunciation". VG+.

THE MASTLESS BARGES. 1995.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
10.5 x 8.5cm, 1pp, Artist's card with a quotation from Greenhill's "Sailing for a Living" describing a barge and its crew moving along the canal. The bottom half of the typography is deliberately obscured from the bottom as if misprinted - reflecting the text where the low level of the boats make it look like the men on board are walking just above the water. VG+.

ONE OF 100 NUMBERS THAT JUST HAPPEN. 1995.

Vermont: Longhouse, 1995
8.8 x 10.8cm, 4pp black on green folding card - the internal poems have capitalised first letters which vertically read as the words CRATE DOOR, HOE, SOAP, BALSA and TWINE. The associated words create a description of each word eg.:

H eaven
O rders
E arth

Order comes from above - as it does when a gardener uses a hoe. VG+.

JUG. 1995.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
5.5 x 10.9cm, 4pp, Artist's card with a definition work by Finlay printed on the inner card:
"Jug, n. if in a still-life by Juan Gris, the note of the nightingale."
Gris being one of the most important of Cubists who often painted still life works in which brown earthenware often featured. The jug of a nightingale being also the sound it makes. The colour of the card is also that of the crockery. Essentially a visual pun cum poem. VG+.

ECHOES SERIES. IL PLEUT. 1995.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
16.5 x 10.5cm, 2pp, Artist's card designed in the format of the Apollinaire Il Pleut calligramme where the lines descend like rain - but the text here is taken from D. H. Lawrence's Autumn Rain. This is one of Finlay's Echoes Series where known poetic works are recreated with some aspect of the original retained. VG+.

PINES IN THE SNOW. 1995.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d.. (1995) 12.7 x 8.2cm, 4pp artist's card which shows a list of "words" each beginning with the capital letter T and then various anagrams of LARK (but not the word Lark itself) - it is hard to be sure of the meaning of this card other than perhaps the letters are meant to represent the branches of the various pine trees (and the birds in them). VG+. 1

A SEASONAL MONUMENT. 1995.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
10.3 x 14cm, 2pp, Artist's card printed black on deep green. The full title is "A SEASONAL MONUMENT TO THE SOVIET POET MAYAKOVSKY*" beneath which is the line "The smashed canoes of the Salix fragilis". Salix fragilis is the willow tree. Mayakovsky killed himself after his love affair with three different women turned sour - he left a poetic suicide note that included the words "The love-boat has come to grief/On the reefs of convention." The crack willow trees are known to break open (usually with a very loud noise) and Finlay's metaphor of a "smashed canoe" reflects the poem left behind in Mayakovsky's flat. VG+.

LAKE ISLE. 1995.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
9.1 x 9cm, 4pp, Artist's card printed black on green. A drawing of rubber beams by Gary Hincks illustrates a poem by Finlay internally:
LAKE ISLE

Nine bean-rows in
a bee-loud glade by
a shore where peace comes<BRdrop-
ping slow

VG+.

BATTLE FLAG FOR A CATAMARAN. 1995.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
10.3 x 14.4cm, 2pp, Artist's card with a typographic design by Michael Harvey after Finlay's instruction.

YELLOW
VIOLE(N)T
YELLOW
VIOLE(N)T
YELLOW

The structure of the five words reflects the structure of a catamaran with its three hulls (Yellow) and the turbulent water (violent/violet) in between. Hence a symbolic flag for the vessel. VG+.

ELEGY. 1995.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
9.5 x 6.1cm, 4pp, Artist's card with a wreath on the front. The drawing could also be an image of a tyre hung from the side of a boat to stop the hull hitting the dock.

Internally a poem:

Elegy
Courageous 11
Faithful 111

The names of boats placed together leave the impression of a dedication for the dead. Perhaps even fishermen dead. VG+.

SOUND SHANTY. 1995.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
10 x 5.5cm, 4pp, Artist's card printed black on blue with a sound poem by Finlay on the front made up of the various abbreviations for ports. VG+.