IAN HAMILTON FINLAY

PRINTS + POSTERS

STRAWBERRY HILL IN 5 VISUAL POEMS. 1986.

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..." which are the names of carrier-borne aircraft from the Second World War. Finlay seems to be comparing the wilds of Walpoles imaginings to the fires of the weapons of an aircraft carrier. A carrier after all is a wild hill on the sea.
This is one of two colour variants of the outer envelope - there was also a light green version.
Wikipedia explains that "Strawberry Hill House—often called simply Strawberry Hill—is the Gothic Revival villa that was built in Twickenham, London by Horace Walpole from 1749 onward. It is the type example of the "Strawberry Hill Gothic" style of architecture, and it prefigured the nineteenth-century Gothic Revival." Walpole was also the author of ‘The Castle of Otranto’, the world’s first Gothic novel. Finlay's work might be seen as a word picture of Gothic landscape.

Jonathan Williams, Karl Kempton, Phil Gallo, Scott Helms

CHANSON D’AUTOMNE. 1986.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1986
23 × 18cm, black on grey printed outer folded with title content of two 23 × 18cm offset lithographs. The first is printed on light mustard-yellow paper and has the sole text "glades of sunlight" at the top and the second "forests of cloud" at the bottom printed on brown thick paper.
One of Finlay's innovative colour paper prints where the medium utilised is as important as the words found upon the page. This is a visual poem in some sense that the paper colours suggest that scene of sunlight breaking though the fog (the bright yellow paper is placed in front of the dark brown sheet in the folder and is more dominant to the eye.
This is one of only 150 such prints printed. VG+.

SAILORS! REVOLUTIONAIRES! LEARN FROM YOUR BOLDNESS. SAINT-JUST AS TATLIN. 1987.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
54.5 x 49.5cm, full colour offset lithograph on paper. The reproduced painting by Hincks is of Saint-Juste supposedly replacing Tatlin in his cubist self-portrait The Sailor from 1911. The text: "SAILORS! REVOLUTIONAIRES! LEARN FROM YOUR BOLDNESs" is from the French revolution but could equally be from the Russian overthrow of the Tzar. Whereas in the original painting the cap has the word GUARDIAN on it, the Finlay version says REPUBLIQUE.
The image we have used here is from a publication - the print we hold is framed in wood and glass and hard to image without reflections - but the work is in VG+ condition.

HINCKS

JOSEPH BARA AFTER GRIS. 1987.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
77.0 x 62.5cm, full colour offset lithograph on paper. The reproduced painting by Hincks is based on a 1925 cubist painting by Juan Gris called Drummer. In place of Gris' adult, Finlay had Hincks turn the figure into the martyred "little drummer boy" Bara who died in the revolutionary war against the reactionary uprising in the Vendee. Here Hinck's recreation of the work is lighter and more classical in touch - even more heroic.
The image we have used here is from a publication - the print we hold is framed in wood and glass and hard to image without reflections - but the work is in VG+ condition.

Gary Hincks

AND EVEN AS SHE FLED I. 1987.

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1976
43.2 x 55.8cm offset lithograph in green on white paper. Typography by John R. Nash. The "quotation" is from Ovid's Metamorphoses an epic poem of mythology. Here the quotation is from the story of Apollo and Daphne - the duo forced by Eros to be in emotional conflict with Daphne eventually being saved from ravishment by her father the river god turning her into a tree. This is the first of two linked works with the original quotation from Ovid unaltered from the translation - the other paired work has the text refer to Saint-Juste as "Apollo and "Daphne" becomes the spirit of the French revolution. VG+.

John R. Nash

AND EVEN AS SHE FLED II. 1987.

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1976
43.2 x 55.8cm offset lithograph in green on white paper. Typography by John R. Nash. The "quotation" is from Ovid's Metamorphoses an epic poem of mythology. Here the quotation is from the story of Apollo and Daphne - the duo forced by Eros to be in emotional conflict with Daphne eventually being saved from ravishment by her father the river god turning her into a tree. But here Finlay has altered the text to make it relevant to the French Revolution during the period of the Terror and in particular replacing Apollo with Saint-Just. There is a "paired" print of this work with the original quotation from Ovid unaltered from the translation (see previous print listing here). VG+.

John R. Nash

LIGUE DES DROITS DE LE HOMME? 1987.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
42 X 30cm, red and black on white offset lithograph on satin paper. The text is an attack on Michel Blum "terrorist intellectuel" who "deshonore la France."
Blum along with Catherine Millet had attacked Finlay as "anti-semitic" because of his friendship with the architect Albert Speer (who had collaborated with the Nazis) and stopped a major commission from the French government being given to Finlay.
Blum was a member of the Ligue de Droits de L'Homme - hence this poster suggesting Blum was only interested in the rights of SOME men not all.
Blum was a particular egregious critic of Finlay - he knew little of the latter's work and made outrageous claims such as Finlay used swasticas in a large number of works - something that was clearly untrue. VG.

Michel Blum

CLASSICAL/NEOCLASSICAL. 1987.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
63.5 x 24.6cm, b/w screenprint with two drawings by Gary Hincks one above the other. The first is a tower of army drums which leans to the left, the second the same drums but leaning to the right. The drums are a reference to the martyred young drummer boy Bara. Under the first drawing is the word CLASSICAL and under the second, NEOCLASSICAL. The secondary visual correspondence is to architectural columns. VG.

Gary Hincks

THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE. 1987.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
76 x 58cm, black on white silkscreen print. The line drawing of a guillotine blade has Marshall McLuhan's famous dictum "THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE" on it. It is hard to think of a medium having a more sharp message than this agency of death. Black is used as a colour reference to death.
The image we have used here is from a publication - the print we hold is framed in wood and glass and hard to image without reflections - but the work is in VG+ condition.

LACONIC. 1987.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
76 x 58cm, red on white silkscreen print. The line drawing of a guillotine blade has the word LACONIC on it. A laconic person is someone who uses few words - and the falling of a guillotine not only ends a conversation but also the coversationalist. The red is blood of course.
The image we have used here is from a publication - the print we hold is framed in wood and glass and hard to image without reflections - but the work is in VG+ condition.

Ron Costley

FOLLIES. 1987.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
29.6 x 21cm, BLACK on light brown offset lithograph with a series of small digs at the National Trust by quoting the most absurd parts of the "Follies, A National Trust Guide" that had so offended the poet - such as:

ITS REGARD FOR THE ENGLISH PEOPLE
"It's (Berkshire is) the sort of county that given half a chance would impose a toll to keep out the riff-raff, and as such it attracts the sort of riff-raff who have acquired sufficient money to be allowed in..."

Not all of Finlay's quotations hit the mark to be honest and it is one of the poet's worst printed works - spite can create great art but the risk is also that it may not.
Folded centrally in the past else VG.

John Nash

FOUNTAIN. 1987.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
22.4 x 17.1cm. light blue on white offset lithograph in folder. A concrete poem with the words 'Liberty Equality Fraternity / little fountain in three colours' in the shape of both a fountain and a crown. One of 300 printed. VG.