Ian Hamilton Finlay. Second Anniversary of the First Battle of Little Sparta, February 4 1985
Lithograph printed at the Wild Hawthorn Press, Little Sparta, on the 4th of February 1985. Triangularly folded sheet 21 x 21 cm printed with text in red: EVERY GOAL NEGATES. LUDWIG FEUERBACH. SECOND ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIRST BATTLE OF LITTLE SPARTA. Posted from Ian Hamilton Finlay to Alastair Grieve in Venice, postmarked 5 February 1985. Stamped with Hamilton Finlay’s own mail stamp “Feb 4 Day of the Flute” in blue.
Ian Hamilton Finlay made this work on the second anniversary of what he termed, The Battle of Little Sparta, which took place on the 4th of February 1983 at his property, Stonypath Farm, near Edinburgh, when the sheriff officer of Strathclyde regional council attempted to seize works of art from the property in lieu of unpaid building rates. “The council categorised the structure, originally a barn, as an art gallery, whereas Finlay claimed it was a garden temple. The garden was, in Finlay’s words, “a place apart, if you like, a religious place", and the building in question "developed naturally into one which performs the normal functions of temples in classical gardens". The sheriff officer, acting in the role of bailiff, was confronted by a group of Finlay's supporters known as the Saint-Just Vigilantes, after the French revolutionary remembered for the "spartan" nature of his philosophy.” Stonypath farm was henceforth known as Little Sparta. The ongoing dispute became the central concern of Finlay’s later work. “The Day of The Flute” refers to the date of the first battle and a line from Virgil, "Flute, begin with me”, which also runs across the top of a plaque placed at the entrance to Little Sparta which depicts a machine gun in the shape of a flute. – Text from James Campbell’s article ‘Avant Gardener’ in The Guardian, Saturday May 31, 2003
Title: Second Anniversary of the First Battle of Little Sparta
Author: Ian Hamilton Finlay
Publisher and Date: The Wild Hawthorn Press, Little Sparta, Scotland
Publication date: 1985
Format: Lithograph printed in red and triangularly folded. 21 x 21 cm
Condition: Mail stamps and address labels. Red biro to inner centre panel
Provenance: The library of art historian Alastair Grieve
Collections: The Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art
Stock Number: RB02024