19 Apr

Posted at 20:40h in Artist's Books

Tipperary/Saint Paulinus: Coracle & Saint Paulinus, 2019 18 x 24cm, 186pp and hand boards with applied colour illustration label. A posthumous artist's book explaining "the history of the Spandau Garden in the time of the architect Albert Speer". Speer was, of course, a Nazi who was jailed at the Nuremburg trials rather than condemned to death like his fascist friends and colleagues. The book is filled with quotations taken from Finlay's letters to Speer and watercolours of the prizon garden by Ian Gardener. It is a lovely publication if more than a little contentious. One of 500 numbered copies. VG+. ...

09 Apr

Posted at 10:06h in Invitation Cards

London: Victoria Miro, n.d. (1987)
12 x 15cm, 4pp. Announcement card for a group show with works by Lothar Baumgarten, Marie Bourget, Thomas Joshua Cooper, Chris Drury, Andy Goldsworthy, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Hamish Fulton, Wolfgang Laib, Nikolaus Lang, Bernard Lassus, Richard Long, Martin Rogers, David Tremlett, and Herman de Vries. The front of the card is a model tank by Finlay and Ian Gardner "Panzer V (Penterai Semi- Reducta) from 1979. VG+.

...

06 May

Posted at 10:29h in Artist's Postcards

Leeds: New Arcadians Press, 1983
11 x 16cm, printed purple envelope with title and publication information content of two cards.
The first card is:
2 PROSPECTS.
8.3 x 10.9cm 6pp (asymmetric folds). A folding card which has two drawings by Ian Gardner which reflect the shape of each other. The first is a slope on a battle ship's deck, the second a slope on a hill with a house and a tree. The "elevation" of the guns to the deck and the "elevation" of the house to the tree are mathematically compared to each other in the diagram.
Two quotes one by Horace Walpole and the other John James note the evolution of "Ha! Ha!s" in gardening - places where the ground drops away suddenly and allows unimpeded access to the grounds. On a battleship the slope in front of a gun allows the missile to be projected without opposition.
The card may be a typical Finlay work bringing attention to a comparison or metaphor between two things but given the on-going feeling of conflict and being under attack at Little Sparta at this time - the card is also a threat to those attacking the elevations of the grounds.

The second card is
THE TEMPLE OF APOLLO
10 x 13cm, 2pp and a duotone photograph of the the Temple of Apollo (aka Garden Temple) - the building that Finlay disputed the rating value of and the heart of the dispute between him and the Regional Council.
Both cards are VG+.
Murray's flawed catalogue raisonne only notes the first card and does not note it was part of a pair or that it was published by someone other that the Wild Hawthorn Press. it appears these cards were published at the same time as an exhibition at Southhampton Art Gallery.

...

24 Jul

Posted at 22:23h in Artist's Postcards

Carlisle: Carlisle Museum & Art Gallery, 1982
14.7 x 10.5cm, 2pp card. One of five cards released during the exhibition ‘Presences of Nature’ - each with a painting by Ian Gardner. Here the illustration shows trees and a river with rain falling. Finlay's one word poem for this image and the main title of Drip-Dry is May. A very British obssesion with the weather. VG+.

...

24 Jul

Posted at 22:20h in Artist's Postcards

Carlisle: Carlisle Museum & Art Gallery, 1982
14.7 x 10.5cm, 2pp card. One of five cards released during the exhibition ‘Presences of Nature’ - each with a painting by Ian Gardner. Here the illustration shows mountains and a forest and moors. Finlay's one word poem for this image of moorland is marquetry and the look of the landscape does appear to be made up of veneers. VG+.

...

24 Jul

Posted at 20:34h in Artist's Postcards

Carlisle: Carlisle Museum & Art Gallery, 1982
14.7 x 10.5cm, 2pp card. One of five cards released during the exhibition ‘Presences of Nature’ - each with a painting by Ian Gardner. Here the illustration shows geese flying over a river estuary. The geese however are notes which part with one half ascending, the other descending. Finlay's one word poem for this image is Deep-V-Hull-Geese which creates a visual correspondence with a ship easily pushing waves aside because of its deep V hull. VG+.

...

25 May

Posted at 20:30h in Artist's Postcards

Carlisle: Carlisle Museum & Art Gallery, 1982
14.7 x 10.5cm, 2pp card. One of five cards released during the exhibition ‘Presences of Nature’ - each with a painting by Ian Gardner. Here the illustration shows a ticket in close-up. Finlay's one word poem for this image is "Osiris" with beneath it the word "osiers'. The similarity in the words appeals to the poet and the Egyptian god Osiris was the god of agriculture and by extension fertile growth. Osiers is a type of willow that grows in the wet. VG+.

...

25 May

Posted at 20:24h in Artist's Postcards

Carlisle: Carlisle Museum & Art Gallery, 1982
14.7 x 10.5cm, 2pp card. One of five cards released during the exhibition ‘Presences of Nature’ - each with a painting by Ian Gardner. Here the illustration shows a country landscape at night. Finlay's one word poem for this image is "Curfew" with beneath it the word "curlew'. The similarity in the words appeals to the poet as well as the link between hearing the sound of a curlew (a wading bird) and nightfall about to come down. VG+.

...

24 Apr

Posted at 11:17h in Prints + Posters

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1982
30.2 x 53cm, brown and black on white offset lithograph. A painting buy Ian Gadner of a line of boats - all "penny browns". Penny Brown stamps were a mid 19th century postal stamp and one presumes there is a visual correspondence between this delightful maritime scene and the idea of individual items moving to a destination. VG.

...

30 Mar

Posted at 16:11h in Prints + Posters

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1982
24x 18cm, folded card with two tipped on images - the first a painting by Ian Gardner of The Temple of Fame, Studley Royal - a wooden "temple" built for William Aislabie in 1770 amongst woodlands and a extract in appears to be a facsimile of dictionary definitions but in fact gathered from various sources by Finlay for the words Dove, East, Fame, Gnomon and Horizon. VG.

...

27 Feb

Posted at 15:58h in Artist's Books

Dunsyre, : Wild Hawthorn Press, (1982)
7.5 x 9.5cm, 12pp plus card wrappers and printed white dust jacket.
Artist's book with a drawing of a circle, a classical column and a cube by Ian Gardner. The text is "Volume makes beauty/ and the most beautiful forms" with the latter on the page with the drawings "are the sphere, the cylinder, the cube." a quote from Vitulio from the 12th century. (One is reminded of Paul Cezanne's similar statement).
Finlay has replaced the cylinder with a classical column - changing Vitulio's statement into a promotion of neo-classicism. VG+

...

15 Feb

Posted at 15:44h in Artist's Books

Dunsyre, : Wild Hawthorn Press, (1982)
7.5 x 9.5cm, 12pp plus card wrappers and printed pink dust jacket.
Artist's book with two drawings by Ian Gardner - one entitled The Orgy of The Cherries - where the stalks and stones are scattered and L'Idylle de Cerises where the cherries are uneaten and the stalks still attached. The L'Idylle de Cerises is a reference from a chapter heading from Rousseau's Les Confessions. Cherries are associated with sexual pleasure and Rousseau mentions them in a context of mild desire. The book (printed on pink to reflect the colour of the fruit) shows the detritus of cherry eating - with all the stones scattered - as a metaphor for an orgy when all the participants are exhausted and strewn across the bed. VG+.

...

Shopping cart0
There are no products in the cart!
Continue shopping