
Drypoint. A view along a city arcade, with a figure, silhouetted against the light, in the far right distance. At the left of the image is an entrance to a stairwell; a man walks towards it. The image is constructed with sharply receding one-point perspective, with its vanishing point at the distant doorway with its four glass panels. There are four variant impressions of this state.
Drypoint shading has been added to many areas of the plate.
The two figures have been burnished away and the arcade is now empty, although traces of the man at left remain. There are three variant impressions of this state.
The pilasters at the end of the arcade have been extended in height, and three of the four glass panels have been darkened; the second panel from the right is now an open doorway. The title of the work has been changed to The arcade.
- Catalogue Number
- E.093
- Title and Date
- Arcade 1995
- Description of Featured Image
- A view along a city arcade; at its very end is an open doorway through which light shines. At the left of the image is an entrance to a stairwell. The image is constructed with sharply receding one-point perspective.
- Where Made
- Alphington, Melbourne
- Medium Category and Technique
- Intaglio Print: Drypoint and burnishing on copper
- Support
- Wove paper. Identified papers: White and buff BFK Rives papers with watermarks: ‘BFK RIVES / FRANCE’ with infinity symbol.
- Dimensions
-
Image size: 197 x 303 mm
Matrix size: 200 x 304 mm - Artist’s Record Number
- RAE.92, RAE.95, RAE.105 (all 1995)
- Printer(s) and Workshop(s)
- All impressions printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio.
- Summary Edition Information
- Five states. Three editions. First edition: nominal edition of ten, but only three impressions printed and numbered, 1995. Second edition: edition of three numbered impressions, 1995. Third edition: nominal edition of ten, but only three impressions printed and numbered, 1995.
- Collections
- State Library of Victoria, Melbourne: seven state impressions, numbered 1 through 7; bon à tirer impression; ed. 1/3 (first edition); one state impression, numbered 1a; ed. 1/3 (second edition); one state impression, numbered 1b; bon à tirer impression; ed. 2/10 (third edition).
- National Gallery of Australia, Canberra: ed. 1/10 (third edition) (2007.705).
- Comment
The subject of this print was inspired by the space of Melbourne’s Capitol Arcade, which runs between Swanston Street, Howey Place and Collins Street. The arcade takes its name from that of the Capitol Theatre in Swanston Street, a cinema designed by the architects Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin, which opened in 1924.
There are three principal versions of this image within its five states: the earliest version, which includes the figures of two, spatially unconnected, men in business suits; the second version, in which the figures no longer appear, following the reworking of the plate in April 1995; and the third and final version, in which three of the glass panels at the end of the arcade have been darkened, while the fourth has been changed into an open doorway with light flooding through. Amor made all three versions in the same year and within a short time of one another, with each major change altering the implied narrative of the image, edging it deeper into a mood of dark and puzzling emptiness.
Amor repeated this view of the arcade in a drypoint of 2012 (cat. no. E.171), which he reworked and retitled in 2014 (E.171.1). There are also variants of the image, painted in watercolour and oils, as well as a 1993 woodcut with the same title, but showing a different composition.
- Keywords
- Building interior, Capitol Arcade, Melbourne
- URL
- https://catalogue.rickamor.com.au/works/intaglio/arcade/
Record last updated 15/02/2021