BOTH THE GARDEN STYLE…. 1987.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
47.5 x 30.5cm, full colour lithograph with a drawing by Gary Hincks of a guillotine with a flower growing all around it using it as a support. The text below by Finlay claims that both "the garden style called "sentimental", and the French Revolution, grew from Rousseau. The garden trellis, and the guillotine, are like entwined with the honeysuckle of the new "sensibility'." One of Finlay's most attractive works and self-explanatory from the text.
WILLOW. 1987.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
41.5 x 20.8cm, green on white offset lithograph print with a text that descends vertically - "Tree leaved with mists". The tree here is a willow and FInlay is not only reflecting the way the leaves fall vertically from that tree but also the similarity of the diffuse leave shapes to mist. SLight former creases else VG.
FROM THE NABIS SERIES: DER UNTERGANG DES ABENDLANDES. 1987.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
21.2 x 19.5cm, printed black on dark grey outer folder content of a single 21.2 x 19.5cm offset lithograph on bright red paper paper.
The folder has " DER UNTERGANG DES ABENDLANDES" printed at the top which is a reference to Oswald Spengler's theoretical history "Decline of the West" from 1918. The inner sheet has "effulgence of the robin" printed black in the middle of the sheet all in lower case.
Spengler (a controversial historian) can clearly be seen as a classicist and it is tempting to think Finlay is approving here of his belief in the higher aesthetics of an earlier age. Additionally the phrase" From the Nabis Series" references the short lived Nabis group of painters -Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Denis, Paul Ranson, Édouard Vuillard, Ker-Xavier Roussel, Félix Vallotton, and Paul Sérusier. symbolists who took their name from the Hebrew nebiim (which means prophet). The bright red of the insert on one level references the bright colours of the group but also may well be seen as the classical a symbol of redemption. VG+>
POIRE/LOIRE. FROM THE NABIS SERIES. 1987.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1986
26.4 x 12.2cm, unprinted white outer folder content of two 26.4 x 12.2cm offset lithographs. The first sheet is printed on russet brown paper and has the sole text "POIRE" at the top and the second has "LOIRE" also at the top but this time printed on bright blue paper.
One of Finlay's innovative colour paper prints where the medium utilised is as important as the words found upon the page.
The pairing of the rhyming works Poire and Loire identify this as French themed work - Loire Valley and river being to the south West of Paris and Poire (pair) being a long associated fruit from this region (Poire Tapees being a long loved desert from the Vendee).The colour reflect the colours of ripe pairs and the bright sunny sky of the area.
As an aside the Loire Valley was part of the Vendee uprising of 1793 which rocked the French revolution until it was brutally put down by Republican army troops - and Finlay made many works about those events although it is not quite clear if this work relates to those events. VG+.
FROM THE NABIS SERIES: FILGER. 1987.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
22.8 x 22.2cm, offset lithograph printed black on deep blue stock inside an outer red folder with the word FILIGER printed on the front page. On the blue sheet the definition of the word - "Jewel work of a delicate kind made with threads and beads." is given. The intense colours of the papers used give a glimpse at this meaning by their attractive brightness reflecting the bright expressionist colours of the symbolists but FILIGER also refers to Charles Filiger the French Symbolist painter and friend of Gauguin. He along with Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Denis, Paul Ranson, Édouard Vuillard, Ker-Xavier Roussel, Félix Vallotton, and Paul Sérusier. were known as the Nabis group - taking their name from the Hebrew nebiim which means prophet. Sadly Filiger died an alcoholic after years of self-neglect. He might have been seen as a "delicate kind". VG+ condition.
DELEGATION WITH RESPONSE EQUALS DEMONSTRATION. 1987.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
29.7 × 21m, red on white offset lithograph. The print has four statements on it - dogmatically - DELEGATION WITH RESPONSE EQUALS DEMONSTRATION/WHEN WORDS HAVE FAILED THERE IS A STATE OF WAR/EVENTS ARE A DISCOURSE /FIGHT THE INTELLECTUAL TERRORISTS CANCEL PICABIA NOW!". Part of Finlay's continuing campaign against Strathclyde Region over a Rates dispute.
TWO VISIONS. 1987.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
29.6 x 21cm, green on light brown offset lithograph with a lengthy text with two conflicting etymologies of the word Folly. The first from a National Trust book on Follies which had attracted Finlay's ire for including Little Sparta as a folly has a negative connotations. The second is from the French "folie" - meaning delight or favourite abode which clearly Finlay prefers. VG+>
A LITTLE SPARTAN GUIDE TO THE NATIONAL TRUST. 1987.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
29.6 x 21cm, green on light brown offset lithograph with a text in which Finlay delights in pointing out mistakes and the absurd statements made by Wim Meulenkamp and Gwyn Headley in the Book "Folies, A National Trust Guide". The book had included Little Sparta in its listings - something which offended Finlay to his roots.
This was just one of his acts of revenge against the authors that emerged in many texts and works of art. VG+.
1794. KNITTING WAS A RESERVED OCCUPATION. 1987.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
20.9 x 29.6cm, red and black offset lithograph on paper. A typographic print with the title text reminding of how women supposedly knitted while watching the executions on the guillotine. Apocryphally they would drop a stitch as each head fell into the basket. Finlay uses this statement to have a go at Catherine Millet for her attacks on him in the Art Press, Paris - comparing her to the ghouls beside the scaffold. VG example.
There was a companion print to this one with the text in French issued at the same time - see our next listing here.
1794. LE TRICOT ETAIT UNE OCCUPATION RESERVE. 1987.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
20.9 x 29.6cm, red and black offset lithograph on paper. A typographic print with the title text reminding of how women supposedly knitted while watching the executions on the guillotine. Apocryphally they would drop a stitch as each head fell into the basket. Finlay uses this statement to have a go at Catherine Millet for her attacks on him in the Art Press, Paris - comparing her to the ghouls beside the scaffold. VG example.
There was a companion print to this one with the text in English issued at the same time - see our previous listing here.
EVERY EFFECT REMAINS IN ITS CAUSE…. 1988.
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.