04 May

Posted at 22:22h in Letters + Documents

Little Sparta: Finlay, 4th May 1988
Two original vintage xerox stapled sheet (both recto) of a letter from Finlay to "Inez" (Inez Horst-Aletrino - a Dutch painter who was close to the Finlay family).
Finlay points out that his life has been a "nightmare" following the accusations of Catherine Millet and he notes he is inclosing for information his statement for a "right of reply" in France as well as a "transcript of the radio broadcast which led to the cancellation of the Versailles project".

Finlay points out that "none of those taking part have ever seen our garden. The broadcast is LIES and INVENTIONS designed to destroy Sue and I. Never before have I encountered such EVIL. It has changed our lives for ever."

An important letter showing the impact the controversy was having on the Finlay family at the time.
JOINT:
Twelve 30 x 21cm, original vintage xerox sheets (all printed recto) with a transcript (in French) of the radio programme hosted by Stephane Paoli in which Catherine Miller, Michel Blum and Catherine Duhamel discuss Finlay and libel him with charges of being anti-Semite. Millet begins by claiming a work (OSSO) has a SS double lightning strike symbol on it and makes the rather simplistic reading of the work that it is pro-nazi. They then raise the matter of Finlay's commission by the French government of a major public work and Blum claims that Finlay's correspondence with the jailed Albert Speer is further proof of national socialist sympathies. The programme continues in the same vein - Millet makes several claims about works in Little Sparta (works she had never seen) that were evidence of National Socialist sympathies eg the washing line that Sue and Ian Finlay joked was called the Seigfried Line (a joke that is obvious to those of British background as there was a popular anti-Hitler song of that name in the second world war "Hang out the washing on the Siegfried Line".
An important document that documents the outrageous way in which the French critics used lies and exaggerations to stoke public anger against Finlay his and eventually cause the commission to be withdrawn by the French Government without any explanation.
joint:
Handwritten cardboard envelope addressed to Inez Horst-Aletino from Finlay.

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02 May

Posted at 09:20h in Letters + Documents

Little Sparta: Finlay, 1988
Five original vintage xeroxes each 30 x 21cm, 1pp with press cuttings (all 1988) from The Times Literary Supplement, The Scotsman (2), and two unidentified Dutch newspapers reproducing letters to the Editor and articles about Finlay as well as one by Wim Meulenkamp (one of Finlay's accusers) in which he responds to positive support for Finlay from the Kroller-Muller museum and outrageously calls Finlay once again a "crypto-fascist".
One article in the Scotsman Arts Review of May 23 1998 is by Duncan Macmillan (who for once gets it right) describes the original commission in details - clearly fed background on the various meanings of the proposed work by Finlay - in some detail. It makes one regret the work never having been made.
Copied at the time by Finlay to distribute to friends and press as a source of information. VG although some rippling of the paper.

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23 Apr

Posted at 09:00h in ARTIST’S BOOKS

Chicago: Museum of Contemporary Art, 1988
30 x 21cm, 120pp plus card covers. Exhibition catalogue which has elements of artist's book in that one section (16pp) is from Detective magazine (entitled DETECTIVE) and shows b/w images of people without captions - one cannot tell who is the victim and who is the murderer.
The rest of the catalogue shows works in colour and b/w of works and installations. A long essay by Lybb Gumpert is the Life and Death of Christian Boltanski is in English. VG+.



Flay Christian Boltanski Catalogue 1992, Page 170....

11 Feb

Posted at 17:30h in ARTIST’S BOOKS

Dijon: Association pour la diffusion de l'art Contemporain, 1988
21 x 14cm, 24pp plus card covers and printed grey dustjacket. First edition of this artist's book which claims to reproduce nine sepia-toned portraits of Harly "found in a cigar box by the artist". Geo Harly was a pre-war entertainer it seems and a man who loved his mother. One of 300 numbered copies. VG+.

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09 Jan

Posted at 15:06h in James Lee Byars

NYC: Mary Boone/Michael Werner, 1988 18 x 12.5cm, 4pp announcement card for a solo show - one work The door of innocence from 1986 is shown in colour on the outside, internally gallery details printed in gold and black. VG+. ...

16 Dec

Posted at 21:16h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
8.8 x 7.8 x 1cm, printed red box content of eleven small folding cards (sizes vary) - each with a concrete poem, a monostich or other poetry form. The text come from the book of the same name. This was the annual Christmas present from Finlay and was issued in only 200 examples. Slight wear and creases to the slightly fragile box else VG+. Scarce.

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28 Oct

Posted at 09:09h in Prints + Posters

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.

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17 Oct

Posted at 20:29h in EXHIBITION CATALOGUES

Amsterdam: Stedelik Museum, 1987
23 x 21.8cm, 12pp (self cover) exhibition catalogue for a solo show. Text in English and Dutch - being an interview with Demosthene Davvetas. Two works - one in b/w, the other in colour - are reproduced.
Wrappers are a bit scuffed and the cheap staples are slightly rusted else VG.

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28 Sep

Posted at 16:00h in Proposals

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

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29 Aug

Posted at 16:51h in ARTIST’S BOOKS

Dusseldorf: Kunstverein fur die Rheinlande und Westfalen, 1987 30 x 21cm, 62pp plus card covers and printed typographic dustjacket. Exhibition catalogue and artist's book which shows the photograph "Classe Terminale du Lycee Chases en 1931 Castelgasse Vienne" on the title page followed by enlargements of each of the faces of the children (not the teacher) - each on a page printed on semi-opaque paper to give a ghostly feel to the faces which are also out of focus due to the enlargement which doubles the affect. The final page of the book is an installation view showing the photographs displayed on the walls each with a lamp light above it. This is one of two artist books based on the same touring show - here in Germany and also in Saint-Ettienne. JOINT: Dusseldorf: Kunstverein fur die Rheinlande und Westfalen, 1987 The printed 4pp insert with a further text in German and many b/w images of Boltanski's other work. VG+. ...

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