E.083 Entrance 1993

• I. 1st state of 4

  

  Drypoint. A view from a large anteroom, through glass doors and onto a street. Framing the scene on the right is a column with a scroll capital, on a pedestal, and along the top is what looks like a beam. A man, silhouetted against the light, can be seen through the glass door at right, and on the opposite side of the roadway is a car. The subject is lightly scored in drypoint.

  Cleanly wiped, light grey impression on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘1 [circled]’; lower centre: ‘Entrance’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’93’.

• II. 2nd state of 4

  Touches of drypoint have been added to the door above the standing man. There are two variant impressions of this state.

  1. Impression with rich burr, on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘2 [circled]’; lower centre: ‘Entrance’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’93’.
  2. Impression with plate tone, on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘3 [circled]’; lower centre: ‘Entrance’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’93’. Although inscribed ‘3’, this is an impression of the second state.

• III. 3rd state of 4

  Two light, vertical strips have been burnished into the dark wall to the left of the standing man. A rocker has been used to intensify the dark tones along the right edge of the image, in the lower right corner, and on the dark areas of wall at left. Several oblique strokes have been added to the light area of wall at the upper left. The contours of the car have been clarified with drypoint.

  Impression on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘4 [circled]’; lower centre: ‘Entrance’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’93’. Although inscribed ‘4’, this is the third state.

• IV. 4th and final state

  The rocker tone has been extended down to cover the entire base of the column at right. There are two variant impressions of this state.

  1. Impression on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘AP’; lower centre: ‘The Entrance’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’93’. (Featured Image)
  2. Dry, blotchy impression on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘AP II’; lower centre: ‘The Entrance’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’93’.

• IV.a. Artist’s proof of 4th and final state (Featured Image)

  

  The rocker tone has been extended down to cover the entire base of the column at right. There are two variant impressions of this state.

• No edition

• Comment

  The setting here is based on the interior depicted in the painting Study for ‘The ante-room’, 1993 (Fry 2008), which, in turn, derives from a photograph that Amor took of the interior of 333 Collins Street, Melbourne. The artist has referred to this former bank, built in the 1890s and subsequently radically remodelled, as ‘a wonderful building’. A feature of its grand domed chamber are original clusters of columns topped with scrolls; there is one such column at the left in Amor’s painting, and one on the right in the present print.

  In making this drypoint, Amor cut down the composition of his painting. He contracted the space, bringing the entire subject closer to the foreground. In addition, the column no longer appears in the round, as it does in the painting, and here is used chiefly as a framing device, focusing attention on the solitary figure in the doorway.

  Conveying a sense of the distance between the framing device and the view beyond it required careful tonal adjustment. In the third state of E.083, Amor worked with a rocker in order to intensify the dark tones along the right edge of the image, and thus to articulate the space more clearly. More depth of tone was needed in the fourth state, and so the use of the rocker was extended. Despite this tonal calibration, however, Amor decided not to print an edition of the work.