IAN HAMILTON FINLAY

PROPOSALS

A REMEMBRANCE OF ANNETTE 2. 1987.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
13.8 × 15cm, outer folder with printed tipped on label and inside a 9pp (printed recto only) accordion folded sheet with drawings by Hincks of the already existing memorial in Uberwasser cemetery in Munster for Annetee von Droste-Hulshoff (1797 - 1848), a 19th-century German writer and composer. This is second of two books relating to a proposal for memorial for the writer created by Finlay. Unusually for him both proposals both might be regarded as artist's books in this format but we have placed them in the same section that the WIld Hawthorn Press used for their listings. VG

Gary Hincks

SIX TREE-COLUMN BASES. 1988.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1988.
Four 29.3 x 38.2cm, offset lithographic prints in a folder - three of the sheets are drawings by Iain Stewart of the proposed column-bases for trees (essentially sculptured bases in stone with text that are placed at the bottom of a tree trunk.
Here the trees are to be planted in doubles next to each other each with a double column-base. There are three sets proposed - TWO FRIENDS - with the names of LeBas and Saint-Just (both comrades in arms and both part of the French Revolutionary Terror); TWO VICTIMS - Camile (Desmoulins) and Lucile, his wife - both of whom were murdered by Robespierre's fiat; and TWO MARTYRS - the brave Corday (Charlotte) who murdered the evil Marat in his bath - but as Finlay points out both were regarded as Martyrs by their supporters.
The forth print in the set acts as explanatory colophon for the portfolio. To my mind one of the best Finlay proposals.
Slight tear bottom right in the folder which minorly affects each print.

Iain Stewart

A PROPOSAL FOR THE FOREST OF DEAN. 1988.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1988, 32.6 x 26cm, black on cream lithograph in folder. A drawing by Gary Hinck of the forest next to a pond after the original by WIlliam Kent and a sketch of one of the tree-plaques. Each tree scupture has either SIlence, Schweigen or Silenzio on it "calling attention to the peaceful surroundings". Sadly this print had a faint diagonal crease on the left else VG in like unprinted folder.

Gary Hincks

A PROPOSAL FOR THE CELEBRATION OF THE BICENTENARY OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 1989.

Little Sparta: Committee of Public Safety/Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989 10.8 x 11.2cm, 4pp. A proposal by Finlay that the celebration of the bicentenary of the French Revolution should be celebrated by A REVOLUTION! Both classed as a "proposal" and also an artist's card. VG+.

A PROPOSAL FOR ARNE FOR DINAH THOMPSON. 1989.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
21 x 14.8cm 8pp booklet designed and with drawings by Gary Hincks after Claude Lorrain. Finlay claims he saw a resemblance between a "coastal area in the south of England and Latium, the leafly coastal country of the later chapters of Virgil's Aneneid." The former presumably is owned by Thompson for whom the proposal was made. Each page has a water colour and a text by Finlay suggesting tree plaques, stone inscriptions and the installation of a "classical gate". Near fine condition.

Gary Hincks

PROPOSAL FOR A PRIVATE GARDEN IN GERMANY FOR DR M. HANSTINE. 1989.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989.
20.3 x 31.5cm, 4pp folded print - offset lithograph green on silk paper. Finlay proposes a series of five arches of wood around a semi-circular path of bricks. The path passes through a "wilder" part of the garden at which point the arch is entirely "rusticated" but the beginning and end of the path has more "rectilinear" wood as the basis for the arch. Three diacrams/plans/drawings by Robert Johnson.

Robert Johnson

INTO THE FOREST. 1989.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987 29.6 x 21cm, 4pp folded sheet with a proposal for a colour brick wall in green amongst a group of trees. Finlay takes the idea from Theocritus's Idylls "a line of green among the trees" and creates a work of land art in a modern garden in Athens. There is a drawing of the installation by Andrew Townsend. VG+.

Andrew Townsend

INTO THE FOREST. 1989.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989 10.0 x 12.4cm, 8pp folded card with a proposal for a stone pathway 16'8" x 12" x 3" where the top of the stone becomes gradually more pitted from a smooth start. The inside of the card has a drawing of the proposed stonework by Andrew Townsend. VG+.

Andrew Townsend

A PROJECT FOR A PROMONTORY. 1990.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1990 11.0 x 7.7cm, 24pp plus card covers and printed dust jacket. One of Finlay's proposals for a public work in Nordhorn in Germany. The proposal is for a large but low lying rusting Cort-en steel sundial near the Vechte river with a latin inscription (to reflect the monastery nearby) that reads "Ex Templo" which means "from the Temple" (ie the sky) as well as "from the moment", there is a proposed viewing point on the opposite side of the water which Finlay intends to stress the inaccessibility of the promontory. The drawings and plans are by Kathleen Lindsley and Malcolm Fraser.
Finlay also appends to the book several of his Detached Sentences on Sundials such as "Clocks scold, sundials preach.". One of only 250 copies published. VG+.

THE SACRAMENTO PROPOSAL. SCULPTURE FOR THE 1201K STREET OFFICE TOWER. 1990.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987 29.6 x 21cm, 4pp folded sheet with a proposal for a walled pool with "granite, water and white neon". Finlay notes "the proposed sculpture treats the building's entrance hall as an atrium: it brings the 'clouds' (in five languages, including Spanish) down through the distinctive tower and dome, to be reflected in the pool. There is a reproduced colour drawing of the pool in plan and in side by Andrew Townsend. VG+.

Andrew Townsend

PROPOSAL FOR A PAIR OF GATE PIERS AND FINIALS. 1990.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1990
42.2 x 14.7cm (folded size) offset lithograph which when open displays the elevations of the finials - drawn by Andrew Townsend- a note on the outside of the card points to the "pineapple" finials visually being like fragmentation grenades and that the use of brick and stone being a poetic metaphor of the philosophies of Terror and Virtue during the French Revolution. One of 250 copies made. VG+.

Andrew Townsend

SIX MILESTONES. 1991.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1991
26 x 18cm, 20pp plus card wrappers and printed dust jacket. A proposal for Floriade, The Hague, Holland where 6 different inscribed milestones were to be situated. The first reminds one of a gravestone and its text a reminder of death as well as of a journey:

MAN
A passerby

The drawings were by Michael Harvey who also drew the proposed plan for the site where the milestones would be placed between two trees in a row.

ix Milestones A Proposal for £65.00 1991 with Michael Harvey 20 pp booklet with dustjacket .0 cm

MICHAEL HARVEY