IAN HAMILTON FINLAY

EXHIBITION CATALOGUES

LEDLANET NIGHTS EXHIBITION. 1963. FINLAY’S FIRST EVER EXHIBITION.

N.p. (Near Edinburgh): n.p. (John Calder), 1963
26.5 x 10cm, 14pp (one page is half size). Mimeographed with similar card cover. The extremely rare first exhibition catalogue that was Finlay's first show alongside the Cobra artist William Gear and Alexander Trocchi and others. Each artist has a page dedicated to them and Hamilton-Finlay's (sic) test is somewhat amusing - including a reworking of his "Notice - please do not feed the boats." and notes Finlay as the inventor of the "Wold (sic) Hawthorne Airship (banned)."
According to wikipedia: " Ledlanet Nights in Kinrosshire, Scotland, was an arts festival that operated from 1962 for around ten years (...) and (...) offered performances mounted on a shoestring budget, which were held in a hall at Ledlanet, then the home of the publisher John Calder."
This as we say above is extremely rare - we have only ever heard of one other extant copy. In very good condition with staples only very slightly rusted.

BETWEEN POETRY AND PAINTING. 1965.

London: Institute of Contemporary Arts, 1965
20.5 x 21cm, 82pp plus card covers. Spiral bound. An anthology of experimental and concrete poetry which was published as the exhibition catalogue for a show at the ICA of the same title. Curated by Jasia Reichardt - who also wrote the long text - this was a breakthrough exhibition which brought works by Ian Hamilton Finlay, Jiri Kolar, Hansjorg Mayer, Pedro Xisto, Ladislav Novak, Dieter Rot, and numerous others to the attention of the British public.
Finlay like the others has a short biography and then Reichardt lists a number of works and publications up to 1965. EarthShip (the rare paper sculpture) is reproduced in b/w and a letter from Finlay to Pierre Garnier from 1963 is also printed which could be regarded as the former poet's credo. Similar texts for the other artists. VG+.

FREEWHEEL. AN EXHIBITION OF GRAPHICS AND POETRY ORGANISED BBY JOHN FURNIVAL AND DSH. 1967.

Nottingham/Cambridge: Midland Group Gallery/Arts Council Gallery, n.d. (1967) 17.8 x 17.8cm, 12pp plus wrappers with a design by Tony Stokes. Exhibition catalogue for an early visual poetry show (even if Furnival and dsh called it "graphics and poetry". Foreword by dsh. There were works (all listed) by Ken Cox, Furnival, dsh, Hansjorg Mayer, Tom Phillips, and others as well as Finlay who contributed a large number of items.
Firstly the catalogue notes twelve different sculptural works - five of which were toys and, then, Column Poem, 4 Sails (Glass Version), fir/far in sheet metal, wave/rock (in two versions) and arc/arc in both sheet metal and perspex. There are prices - one could buy the works for between £40 and £70 - to which an annotation refers to Finlay saying "and a bargain at that".
Additionally the two large works Finlay exhibited in the Brighton Concrete Poetry show were also here - Sailor's Cross (in wood) and Purse-Net Poem (in sheet metal). Further listed in the show are various formats of Au Pair Girl (with Jon Willcocks) two of which were "perspex version 1" and "photographic version 1" and Ring of Waves with Ann Hildred, Homage with Angela Willard, Net Planet with Sue Hudson and Acrobats (letterpress - in two verstions) with Ann Stevenson. The joint work Finlay did with students from Bath College under Joh Furnival's tutorage was also displayed - Eavelines/headlines.
Looking a tthe other contributions one could easily suggest that the show was mostly Finlay.
It is perhaps worth noting that by this exhibition in 1967 Finlay had clearly entered the world of art in the sense of creating three dimensional recognisable sculptures - his first poems in the concrete format were only 3 years earlier. This is scarce publication and in VG+ condition.

ANTHOLOGIE ZUR VISUELLE POESIE. 1968.

Munster: Anthologie zur Visuellen Poesie, n.d. (1968)
19,5 x 219cm, unpaginated ( c. 80pp plus card covers. Exhibition catalogue for an important early survey of concrete and visual poetry in Germany., Works shown by almost all the major figures in the movement. Finlay has two works - Village (where the v is inverted to create a hut) and Star Steer, Rare. VG+.

CONCRETE POETRY BY IAN HAMILTON FINLAY. 1969.

N.p. (Dunfermline): Carnegie Festival of Music and the Arts, 1969
20.5 x 106.cm, 12pp exhibition catalogue for an early show as party of the Dunfermline festival. Mimeograph. There are lists of the 16 works displayed and interesting short notes (by Finlay?) which are insightful for later themes in the poet's work. VG+. Very rare.

CEOLFRITH 1. CATALOGUE VISUAL POETRY. 1970..

Sunderland: Ceolfrith Bookshop Gallery, 1970
35 x 28cm, plastic bag with printed card header/closure content of 4 sections of commentary (by Stuart Mills) and 9 poem cards including dsh's GROVE SINGS RIVER A SONG which is a folding sheet designed to stand on a mirrored glass in such a way that the hand-drawn text 'glove sings' is read in its reflection as 'I love sings': the work is dedicated to Ian Hamilton Finlay by dsh.
Finlay's contribution to the publication is smaller in that Homage to Malevich (lackblockblackb version) is reproduced in the essay Concrete Poetry by Stuart Mills and the book Canal Game, the prints Star/Steer and Acrobats, the work Au Pair and three cards from Rapel were exhibited in the show.
Some rust to the staples and minor wear to plastic bag and header but else this is a very hard to find item and the first of the Ceolfrith publications.

CEOLFRITH 5 – IAN HAMILTON FINLAY. 1970. ONE OF 25 DELUXE COPIES SIGNED & NUMBERED BY FINLAY.

Sunderland: Ceolfrith Press, 1970
Printed three part folder - 24.8 x 20.5cm content of 18 separate inserts consisting of essays, photographs, cards and publications. Photographs by Dianne Tammes.
Alongside a 1pp sheet of catalogue contents printed green on cream stock, the portfolio contains:
'Sailing Drifters' - envelope containing single sheet of quotations printed red and black letterpress on cream stock, folded twice inwards / folded bibliography for the poet, printed brown on cream stock
Wild Hawthorn Press bibliography, with an introduction by Douglas Eadie printed dark blue on brown stock, folded once
An essay by Simon Cutts, 2pp sheet, printed black on blue on both sides
'IAN HAMILTON FINLAY: Engineer and Bricoleur' by Stephen Bann - a 23 x 18.9 mm, stapled booklet with b/w illustrated covers reproducing a photograph of the stone poem 'Rose Bench', containing 7 page essay on Finlay's work
illustrations to Bann's essay and contained in separate printed envelope include: 'The Little Seamstress' colour facsimile printed brown and blue on cream stock
'Skylarks' - small folded b&w poem card in envelope
a b/w photograph of 'Pond Excerpt'
two b/w photographs of 'Model Boats'
a 21.5 x 16.5cm b/w photograph of the poet flying one of his model gliders
a 22 x 14cm, b&w photograph of a work 'Frogbit'
a 20.1 x 16.2cm, b/w photograph of a work 'KY'
a 21.9 x 17.3 b/w photograph of 'Water Weathercock'
A booklet, folded twice, printed silver on black stock of the exhibition items.
This is a very hard to find and important exhibition catalogue with extensive documentation of early Finlay activities. One of only 25 signed and numbered copies within the larger edition of 350 copies. Very good condition. Murray has this as 3.36.

We also own the original paste up/maquette/photgraphs for this publication - see listing in "unique works".

KLANKTEKSTEN KONKRETE POEZIE VISUELE TEKSTEN. 1971.

Amsterdam: Stedelijk Museum, 1971
27.5 x 21cm, 230pp, original card wrappers with typographic dust jacker. Exhibition Catalogue for a major show of sound texts, concrete poetry and vidsual texts which displayed work from over 100 artists from all over the world. Those artists included Augusto de Campos, Carlo Belloli, Claus Bremer, Decio Pignatari, Diter Rot, Daniel Spoerri, Andre Thomkins, Max Bense, Ferdinand Kriwet, Henri Chopin, Heinz Gappmayr, Oyvind Fahlstrom, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Mathias Goeritz, Eugen Gomringer, Hansjorg Mayer, Timm Ulrichs, Hiro Kamimura, K. Katue, Kawashima, Emmett Williams. Essay texts in Dutch, English and German language. The catalogue is organised by country of origin so Finlay has a page of works (Homage to Malevich and Au Pair) alongside those of Furnival, Cobbing, Morgan, dsh and others.
The cheap paper is minorly browned after 50 years and there are minor closed tears to the dust jacket but overall VG+. A rare publication.

NEON POEMS AND NET-FLOATS. 1971.

Edinburgh: Richard Demarco Gallery, 1971
25 x 15cm, 6pp (single sheet printed one side only in turquoise and black). Demarco's monthly programme of events which lists an Ian Hamilton Finlay exhibition of Neon Poems and Net-Floats: the publication doubled as an exhibition catalogue. One b/w image of Finlay (obscured by sails) boating on Lock Echan. VG+ Scarce.

COELFRITH ARTISTS OF THE NORTH EAST. 1972. ONE OF 300 CONTAINS IAN HAMILTON FINLAY CEOLFRITH STREET HANDOUT NUMBER 4!

Edinburgh: Richard Demarco Gallery/Coelfrith Press, 1972 30.7 x 25cm, printed envelope content of four stapled short essays all mimeographed and an original collage by Robin Crozier (which is signed and numbered) and five offset lithgraphic prints by Fred Brookes, John Dee, Roger Palmer, John Roberts and Colin Rose as well as the inclusion of RING by Finlay and Costley which is also known as Ceolfrith Press handout Nr 4 (which was also released independently of this publication). This was the catalogue publication for the exhibition "Coelfrith Artists of the North East" which was put on in Demarco's gallery in Edinburgh. Only 300 copies of this publication were released - but it is very rare to find it complete. The outer envelope is a little browned at the bottom and with mild wear but internally all elements are present and in VG+ condition.

METAPHOR AND MOTIF. 1972.

Nottingham: The Tarasque Press, 1972
22.5 x 20cm, 28pp plus pictorial wrappers. Exhibition catalogue of show of concrete poetry works edited by Stephen Bann. Contributions by Simon Cutts, Ian Gardner, Stuart Mills and Finlay who has three pages of b/w photographs (4 images) taken by Stuart Mills. Slight grubbiness along outer spine else VG. Scarce Catalogue.