01 Oct

Posted at 08:32h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
14 x 9.5cm, 4pp. Artist's folding card with the text "a line of thin pale red" inside which is a translation from Chenier - the French poet of revolutionary times who was guillotined. The red here being blood and the line that left momentarily from the clean cut of the blade. I do not know if Cutts and Finlay were friends at this point - as the card seems to hint at threat - but both published jointly a similar work together under the aegis of Cutts' Coracle Press a few years earlier. VG+.

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09 Sep

Posted at 15:09h in EXHIBITION CATALOGUES

Berlin: Galerie Jule Kewenig, 1989.
49 x 34.5cm, 8pp. Exhibition catalogue in the form of a large broadside with a text in German and English. by Remo Guidieri. Five large b/w images of works - Boltanski has an image from his comic performances on the back. VG+ although folded as issued by the gallery.

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23 Aug

Posted at 20:26h in ARTIST’S BOOKS

Moscow: Maison Centrale de L'Artiste, 1989
11 x 15.5cm, printed envelope in red and black on cream content of four different postcards with images of the exhibition and two 21 x 15cm, 2pp leaflets with texts in French and a reproduction of two press articles in Russian.
The exhibition catalogue in unusual format for a group show of French artists which included Boltanski, Daniel Buren, Sophie Calle, Robert Filliou,, Paul-Armand Gette, Jean le Gac, Annette Messager, Philippe Parreno, and Sarkis amongst others. The images on the cards do not seem to include any obvious Boltanski work. All VG+ in slightly word and minorly torn envelope.

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21 Aug

Posted at 06:52h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
22 x 17.5cm, 20pp plus card wrappers and printed dust jacket. texts by Finlay are reproduced in English and French in a typographic only design. Later these works were reprinted as large posters and exhibited at the 369 Gallery in Edinburgh.

THE BLADE STAINED WITH BLOOD IS NO MORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION THAND THE ALTAR STAINED WITH BLOOD IS GREECE AND ROME.

and

WE WILL VIEW THE FRENCH REVOLUTION MORE SYMPATHETICALLY IF WE SEE THAT THE FACTIONS REGARDS THEMSELVES AS SOVEREIGN NATIONALS IN A STATE OF WAR.

Finlay both admires the unerring purpose of the Terrorists / revolutionary and sees both the purity and the rot within at the same time. The French translations were by Yves Abrioux. VG+.

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22 Jul

Posted at 11:05h in Poems in folders

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
10.5 x 8.2cm, 4pp purple outer folder. Internally a 10.5 x 8.2cm, 4pp sheet with a poem

A Memory of the 90's
exquisite bloater

The decade is being compared to a cured herring. Given the date of publication Finaly presumably is referring to the 1890s - a decade that sometimes referred to as the "Mauve Decade" because of William Henry Perkin's aniline dye allowed the widespread use of that colour in fashion (and the folder here is indeed purple) and also as the "Gay Nineties" because of a perceived happiness despite the economic depression in the USA and elsewhere hence "exquisite". An "bloater" perhaps refers to the way such memories are dry and distant.
This was one of a series of "poems in folders". VG+.

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17 Jul

Posted at 09:23h in Object + Paper Multiples

Edinburgh: Morning Star Publications, n.d. (1989)
A selection of seven different "bookmarks" by Lorine Niedecker, Thomas A. Clark, Basho (translated by Cid Corman), Cid Corman and four by Ian Hamilton Finlay. Two of the bookmars are reprints of earlier cards - Tree (Arbre) and Leaf bark - which are described elsewhere in this catalogue to which two additional cards are added both lists of "definitions" for words beginning with A: Affluence, Allotment, Angel, Apollo, Arcadia, Arrow and a relevant quote.
The edition size is not known. Morning Star Publications was the press set up by Finlay's son Eck (later Alex Finlay). While individually we have catalogued the earlier items as artist's postcards - here as a group we are identifying this as a paper multiple. All VG+. ...

03 Jul

Posted at 19:28h in ARTIST’S BOOKS

Mejan d'Arles: Actes Sud, 1989
19 x 9.8cm, 48pp plus card covers. First edition of this artist's book that reproduces found b/w vintage portraits of unknown people. VG+

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22 Jun

Posted at 15:29h in Poems in folders

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
13.4 x 9.2cm, 4pp red outer folder with a drawing by Kathleen Lindsley. Internally a 13.4 x 9.2cm, 4pp sheet with a poem:

Avenue Studios, Fulham Road*

Rose
Pettigrew

Pettigrew
Rose

Rose Pettigrew was the most significant of Whistler's models but later is recorded as falling in love with Philip Wilson Steer (apparently unrequited). Steer was one of the artists who lived at the Avenue Studios which gives this poem it's name.
By reersing the model's name in the second part of the poem, Finlay is comparing her to an English rose.
This is one of a series of works which the Wild hawthorn Press denoted as "Poems in folders". VG+.

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22 Jun

Posted at 11:31h in Poems in folders

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
10.4 x 14.1cm, 4pp light brown outer folder. Internally a 10.4 x 14.1cm, 4pp sheet with a poem and a drawing (a still life)by Carlo Rossi.
The poem is:

Still-life
"From the Monad and the Dyad
Come the numbers"
- Of 'le violon', 'la musique',
Et 'la carafe'.

The poem cites a pre-Socratic saying meaning that number is an emerging-property of units and elements. Those elements in a still life are a violin, music and a jug which are common in most period still-lives.
This was one of a series of "poems in folders". VG+.

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20 Jun

Posted at 23:11h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
15.3 x 10.6cm, 16pp plus card wrappers and red dust jacket. Four poetic works all relating to the French revolution. The first is

July 28, 1794
Refreshment for the wild flowers
which is a direct reference to the deaths of the members of the Committee of Public Safety who were the effective dictators of the Terror. The wild flowers being fed blood and bodies.

A Riddle
To those who watch, a waterfall; to its victim, a glacier.
The truth of the relativity of the observer when facing the guillotine.

One of only 250 copies. VG+.

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20 Jun

Posted at 23:01h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
13.5 x 13cm, 12pp plus silkscreen blue card covers. Drawings by Grahame Jones. The poems in French are all based on those by Verlaine and Denis. The first is
After Verlaine>

Les violons
De l'automne

(Les triangles
Du Printemps..)

One ofFinlay's most lovely of books. VG+.

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12 Jun

Posted at 15:42h in EXHIBITION CATALOGUES

Paris: Carte Segrete Editeur, 1989
27 x 21cm, 134pp plus printed blue card wrappers. Exhibition catalogue for a conceptual group show (which doesn't have a physical gallery to exhibit in) which includes documenation of early work from 1972 onwards from Christian Boltanski, Daniel Buren, Andres Cadere, Annette Messager, Sarkis and others.
Boltanski's section includes images of work not shown elsewhere including Ombres - an installation in windows where shadows of interesting events could be seen from outside and French WIndow - a similar work elsewhere.
VG+ - very scarce.

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