LAURIE CLARK - Unoriginal Sins

CERTAIN TREES. 2006

paul robertson — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 18:59:40 +0000

London: V&A Museum, 2006

9. 2 x 9.2cm, 2pp ornate die cut announcement on thick card for an exhibition displaying works from a wide range of concrete and visual poets including David Bellingham, Thomas and Laurie Clark, Simon Cutts, Ian Hamilton Finlay., Robert Lax, Stuart Mills and others, The card is a recreation of the cover of the 1973 book of the same title designed by Simon Cutts - which is inspired by Malevich and has red, blue plus deliberate crease lines and tied cotton. One tiny mark bottom right else VG.

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EXCHANGES. 1999.

paul robertson — Sun, 14 Nov 1999 11:44:55 +0000

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1999

14.2 x 9cm, 16pp, plus oversize white card covers and floral decorated dust jacket with tipped on title label. Content of six "exchange" poems - three by Thomas A. Clark and three by Finlay where the structure is of a two line poetic phrase where the swapping of the adjectives or a noun alters the meaning in subtle manners. This:

the centuries of the oak/the sermon in the stone
becomes

the centuries of the stone/the sermon in the oak

Each is illustrated by a small painting by Laurie Clark. VG+.

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A HIRTENLIED. 1999.

paul robertson — Mon, 16 Aug 1999 10:23:15 +0000

Magdeburg: Bundesgartenschau/Wild Hawthorn Press, 1999

18.5 x 17.8 (folded size), gate-fold artist's card (with double fold sides) with a drawing of a sheep's fold by Laurie Clark printed brown on light beige card stock. A proposal for a former military training ground in Germany, Finlay proposes a stone built old fashioned shipfold with gate that visitors are welcome to enter. On the stone is a title of a Salmuel Palmer etching "Folding the last sheep" (a text used by both Finlay and more often by Thomas A. Clark) and on the gate are the carved words :SHepherd's song"). The text is also found in German on the card. This is both artist's card and proposal but we have placed it (as has the Press) in the latter category). VG+.

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FOLDS. 1998. TWO CARDS IN ENVELOPE.

paul robertson — Wed, 01 Jul 1998 18:39:46 +0000

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JOSEPH BARA 1779 – 1793 AGRICOL VIALA 1780 – 1793. 1991.

paul robertson — Sun, 07 Jul 1991 21:42:40 +0000

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1991)
11.6 x 14.6cm, 2pp. Artist's card which notes the names and dates of the two child martyrs of the French Revolution. The border around the names shows two drawings by Laurie Clark of a war drum and a child's toy horse on wheels - to remind the viewer how young the boys were when they died. VG+.

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THERMIDOR. 1989.

paul robertson — Fri, 03 Mar 1989 21:19:01 +0000

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989

21 x 15cm, 30pp with card covers and printed dust jacket. Ten drawings by Laurie Clark based on the ten names of the first decade (week) in the revolutionary calendar. The English translation of the names of the days of the first decade of the month of Thermidor is beneath each French name and the associated drawing. Thermidor was the month when Robespierre and Saint-Just and their colleagues in the Committee of Public Safety were guillotined effectively ending the period of The Terror.
Finlay suggests in an explanatory note at the back fo the book that those ten days become a "kind of via crucis - a Stations of the Jacobin Cross". VG+.

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A COUNTRY LANE. 1988.

paul robertson — Thu, 21 Jul 1988 07:07:20 +0000

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1988

15.5 x 10.6cm, 24pp with 4pp light green end papers, card covers and printed dust jacket. The full title of the book is "A Country Lane with Stiles" and explains Finlay's putative "country lane" which was expected to be a major installation in the 1988 Glasgow Garden Festival. However Finlay withdrew his involvement in the Festival in protest at the Strathclyde Region's dispute with him over the Garden Temple.

The lane was to be a metaphoric peon to De Stijl the modernist Dutch art movement and Finlay lists the flowers and trees that were to be planted.
The rest of the book are poetic considerations of stiles illustrated by Laurie Clark.

STILES 1

Thesis: fence.

Anti-thesis: gate.

Synthesis: stile

One of 500 printed. VG+. Not in Murray's catalogue raisonne.

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CHARM. 1984.

paul robertson — Mon, 07 May 1984 12:29:17 +0000

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1984
15.2 x 11.8cm , 1pp light blue on white card. The card with a drawing of a floral bundle with ribbons by Laurie Clark above a "definition" work:

CHARM, n. a something pleasing in a person or thing; it came in with the Revolution and went out with the War.
There is also a quote from Michelet's History of the French revolution discussing the major public festivals that were organised during the later years of the uprising. Finlay's definition of Charm is heavily related to the actions of the French revolution - placing it on a footing equal to Virtue. VG+.

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ADVENTURER (BATH). 1976.

paul robertson — Mon, 15 Nov 1976 17:48:54 +0000

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1976

15 x 10cm, 1pp. A line drawing by Laurie Clark of a ship steering towards the viewer with its name on the prow: it can be seen to be a model because of the large faucet to be found in the background.
Finlay was fond of making and playing with toy boats from early in his career. VG+.

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CALENDAR. 1975.

paul robertson — Mon, 15 Dec 1975 19:48:49 +0000

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1975.

22.2 x 14.6cm, 8pp (single card folded twice) . A "calendar" designed by Laurie Clark for Finlay with each of the months being given new symbolism. For example, January has a drawing of "black bees and white bees", March is "glider-days", October - blue swan lake and December - the silent hive.
The use of symbols for each month is reminiscent of Le Calendrier Republican that was introduced on 24 October 1793 by the National Convention where the names of months were replaced with objects relevant for that season or month with the year beginning in March. Finlay/Clark's is less radical in that the names and dates of the months are not replaced but the symbolism is similar if more modern.VG+.

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SO YOU WANT TO BE A PANZER LEADER. 1975

paul robertson — Thu, 07 Aug 1975 16:45:26 +0000

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1975

12.8 x 10.2cm, 16pp. Original card covers and dust jacket with title and drawing. Artist's book comprising a series of question and answers - a supposed "test" to see if the applicant can be a Panzer leader. The answers are not supplied. Drawing of tanks in landscapes by Laurie Clark. This has a small stain top left on the dj - else VG. one of the harder Finlay books to find..

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HORLOGE DE FLORE. 1975

paul robertson — Thu, 01 May 1975 08:21:13 +0000

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1975

15,5 x 17.6cm, 6pp folding card printed on one side only black on pink with a drawing of three partially blown dandelion seed heads by Laurie Clark. The French title means flower clock - and the partly distributed seeds on the heads of the drawing remind one of a coded time - - perhaps a quarter before four?

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