Rick Amor

An Online Catalogue Raisonné of the Prints by Irena Zdanowicz

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Newspaper seller 1968

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I. 1st state of 19

II. 2nd state of 19

IV. 4th state of 19

VI. 6th state of 19

X. 10th state of 19

XII. 12th state of 19

XIX. 19th and final state (Featured Image)

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E.002 Newspaper seller 1968

  • I. 1st state of 19

    Etching. A disabled, legless man sits in a low, wheeled trolley, leaning against a pillow at the left, his powerful arms crossed and his sleeves rolled up. Spread out before him, in the trolley, are three blank sheets of paper. The man’s hair sticks up above the crown of his balding head and he is wearing spectacles. Below the front wheels of the trolley is a freely drawn horizontal line extending across the plate.

    Impression with inky stains, especially at the right margin, on stiff wove watercolour paper, printed by Rick Amor at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School, Melbourne. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘1’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor 68’.

  • II. 2nd state of 19

    Three text columns beneath a banner heading have been indicated on the sheets at the centre and the left, and a buxom young woman in a bikini has been added to the sheet at the right, which has now become a girlie magazine. The man’s hair has been extended outward, and lightly etched modelling has been added to his face and body. A framing line surrounding the main motif has also been added.

    Impression with plate tone, on stiff wove watercolour paper, printed by Rick Amor at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School, Melbourne. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘2’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor 68’.

  • III. 3rd state of 19

    Blots of foul biting are now scattered over the centre and right of the plate. The text columns of the central newspaper have been burnished down but remain visible.

    Impression with plate tone, on stiff wove watercolour paper, printed by Rick Amor at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School, Melbourne. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘3’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor 68’.

  • IV. 4th state of 19

    An area of even open-bite tone has been added to the background, within the framing line, and to a strip along the bottom.

    Impression with plate tone, on stiff wove watercolour paper, printed by Rick Amor at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School, Melbourne. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘4’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor 68’.

  • V. 5th state of 19

    Text columns have been returned to the central newspaper, and are now more clearly defined on the newspaper at left. Horizontal lines have been added behind the bikini-clad pin-up on the magazine cover. Cross-hatching has been added to the man’s upper body, including his bare arms.

    Impression with plate tone, on stiff wove watercolour paper, printed by Rick Amor at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School, Melbourne. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘5’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor 68’.

  • VI. 6th state of 19

    The man’s hair has been shortened by being burnished down; his lips and a strip of open-bite etching behind his head have also been burnished to a lighter tone.

    Impression with plate tone, on stiff wove watercolour paper, printed by Rick Amor at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School, Melbourne. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘6’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’68’.

  • VII. 7th state of 19

    The man’s lips are now more clearly defined with etched lines. Oblique lines of hatching have been added to the left of the central newspaper. The front panel of the trolley has been covered with cross-hatching, and burnished in places to produce a more varied tone.

    Impression with plate tone, on stiff wove watercolour paper, printed by Rick Amor at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School, Melbourne. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘7’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’68’.

  • VIII. 8th state of 19

    More etched definition has been given to the man’s chin and jowls. The framing line has been reworked for emphasis.

    Impression with plate tone, on stiff wove watercolour paper, printed by Rick Amor at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School, Melbourne. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘8’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’68’.

  • IX. 9th state of 19

    The tonal background has been further lightened by burnishing, and more etched cross-hatching has been added to the sweater and to the front panel of the trolley. The height of the hair has been increased.

    Impression with plate tone, on stiff wove watercolour paper, printed by Rick Amor at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School, Melbourne. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘9’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’68’.

  • X. 10th state of 19

    A large cross shape has been added with open-bite etching behind the man, echoing, in broad outline, his head and shoulders. Irregular cross-hatching has been added around this shape. An oblique, zigzag scribble has been added to the background on the cover of the girlie magazine.

    Impression with plate tone, on stiff wove watercolour paper, printed by Rick Amor at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School, Melbourne. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘10’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’68’.

  • XI. 11th state of 19

    The inner area of the cross shape, nearest the figure, has been lightened with burnishing. The man’s glasses and the major contours of his body and clothes have been re-etched, and print emphatically. The wooden slats of the top of the trolley have been lightly shaded around the man’s shoulders. A second irregular framing line has been added to the perimeter of the composition.

    Impression with plate tone, on stiff wove watercolour paper, printed by Rick Amor at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School, Melbourne. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘11’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’68’.

  • XII. 12th state of 19

    A light pattern of oblique lines facing left and right has been added to the cross shape. The wooden slats of the top of the trolley have been lightly shaded below the man’s arms.

    Impression with plate tone, on stiff wove watercolour paper, printed by Rick Amor at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School, Melbourne. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘12’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’68’.

  • XIII. 13th state of 19

    The oblique patterning in the cross shape has been more emphatically etched, while the open-bite etching has been burnished back. In the lower part of the plate, the background has received further horizontal etched hatching.

    Impression with plate tone, on stiff wove watercolour paper, printed by Rick Amor at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School, Melbourne. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘13’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’68’.

  • XIV. 14th state of 19

    Areas of the background behind the cross shape have been lightened through burnishing.

    Impression with plate tone, on stiff wove watercolour paper, printed by Rick Amor at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School, Melbourne. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘14’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’68’.

  • XV. 15th state of 19

    Sloping, vertical lines of etching have been added to the area of the cross shape beneath the man’s right shoulder.

    Impression with plate tone, on stiff wove watercolour paper, printed by Rick Amor at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School, Melbourne. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘15’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’68’.

  • XVI. 16th state of 19

    More horizontal and oblique etching has been added throughout the background around the cross shape, to create a darker tone. The double framing line has been substantially filled in with more etching.

    Impression with plate tone, on stiff wove watercolour paper, printed by Rick Amor at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School, Melbourne. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘16’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’68’.

  • XVII. 17th state of 19

    The area around the cross shape has been further darkened, with scribbled hatching giving the shape greater prominence. The man’s pillow at left has been given three broad dark stripes.

    Impression with plate tone, on stiff wove watercolour paper, printed by Rick Amor at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School, Melbourne. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘17’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’68’.

  • XVIII. 18th state of 19

    The man’s forehead has been lightly burnished.

    Impression with plate tone, on stiff wove watercolour paper, printed by Rick Amor at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School, Melbourne. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘18’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’68’.

  • XIX. 19th and final state (Featured Image)

    Hatching and cross-hatching have been added across the whole area within the framing line, except for the figure of the man.

    Impression with plate tone, on stiff wove watercolour paper, printed by Rick Amor at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School, Melbourne. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘19’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’68’.

  • Edition, 1968

    Edition of twelve numbered impressions, on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School, Melbourne. Each impression is inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘[1 through 12]/12’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’68’.

    Edition sheet size: 220 x 179 mm

  • Comment

    The subject of this etching is a man who used to sell newspapers on the corner of Swanston Street and Flinders Lane, Melbourne, whom Amor would see every day on his way to the National Gallery of Victoria Art School (NGVAS). Both the subject matter and the rendering, with its emphatic contours, systematic vocabulary of marks, and deep biting, recall the works of Amor’s teacher John Brack, especially his etchings of medical subjects. However, the process of developing the image across a large number of states  reflects directly the teaching of Murray Walker (b. 1937), Amor’s etching teacher at the NGVAS. The nineteen states of E.002 form a programmatic record of the procedures and steps involved in creating an etching, and document a learning process. The way in which the image has been deliberately and methodically constructed betrays its origins as one of Amor’s earliest works; however, it is also the most fully realized and successful of his early etchings. The lessons of intaglio printmaking, especially the opportunities it affords for changing an image by reworking the plate, were something that Amor would continue to exploit, albeit in an instinctive rather than a systematic way.

    The major changes in the development of the image began in the second state, with the addition of details identifying the three blank sheets of paper as newsprint, followed by the addition of tonal open-bite etching in the fourth state, the introduction of a large cross shape behind the figure in the tenth state, and the insertion of multi-directional patches of diagonal hatching in the twelfth state.

    This etching preceded several painted versions of the subject. The first was a small oil, which remains in Amor’s collection. A larger version in oils was submitted in 1968 as a scholarship painting to the NGVAS; this work was destroyed by the artist in 1969. Another, related version was painted in 1974.

    Gary Catalano observed that the man’s likeness reappears in the large central figure in Morning train, a painting that also dates from 1968 (Catalano 2001), and he saw this as evidence of the early development of Amor’s personal vocabulary of images. Stephen Coppel has suggested that the dense mesh of hatching that covers the image in the etching might be seen as a metaphor for the man’s entrapment in his disabled condition (Coppel 2011). The defining – and confining – cross shape behind the man supports such a reading of the image.

    The copper plate on which E.002 was made has been lost.

Etching. A disabled, legless man sits in a low, wheeled trolley, leaning against a pillow at the left, his powerful arms crossed and his sleeves rolled up. Spread out before him, in the trolley, are three blank sheets of paper. The man’s hair sticks up above the crown of his balding head and he is wearing spectacles. Below the front wheels of the trolley is a freely drawn horizontal line extending across the plate.

Three text columns beneath a banner heading have been indicated on the sheets at the centre and the left, and a buxom young woman in a bikini has been added to the sheet at the right, which has now become a girlie magazine. The man’s hair has been extended outward, and lightly etched modelling has been added to his face and body. A framing line surrounding the main motif has also been added.

An area of even open-bite tone has been added to the background, within the framing line, and to a strip along the bottom.

The man’s hair has been shortened by being burnished down; his lips and a strip of open-bite etching behind his head have also been burnished to a lighter tone.

A large cross shape has been added with open-bite etching behind the man, echoing, in broad outline, his head and shoulders. Irregular cross-hatching has been added around this shape. An oblique, zigzag scribble has been added to the background on the cover of the girlie magazine.

A light pattern of oblique lines facing left and right has been added to the cross shape. The wooden slats of the top of the trolley have been lightly shaded below the man’s arms.

Hatching and cross-hatching have been added across the whole area within the framing line, except for the figure of the man.

Catalogue Number
E.002
Title and Date
Newspaper seller 1968
Description of Featured Image
A disabled, legless man sits in a low, wheeled trolley, leaning against a pillow at the left, his powerful arms crossed and his sleeves rolled up. Spread out before him, in the trolley, are three newspapers or magazines. The man is wearing spectacles. Behind him, outlining his head and shoulders, is a cross shape with multi-directional oblique stripes. The subject is densely etched.
Where Made
National Gallery of Victoria Art School, Melbourne
Medium Category and Technique
Intaglio Print: Etching, open-bite etching and burnishing on copper
Support
Wove paper. Identified papers: No papers identified, but only one type of stiff watercolour paper has been used.
Dimensions
Image size: 149 x 115 mm
Artist’s Record Number
EX.2. Amor’s intaglio record books do not contain an entry for this work.
Printer(s) and Workshop(s)
All impressions printed by Rick Amor at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School, Melbourne.
Summary Edition Information
Nineteen states. Edition of twelve numbered impressions, 1968.
Exhibitions
Niagara Galleries & NETS Victoria 1993–94: Niagara Galleries & NETS Victoria, Melbourne, Rick Amor & the Graphic Arts, Victorian and Tasmanian tour, 1993–94, no. 2.
Heide MoMA 2008: Heide Museum of Modern Art, Bulleen (Melbourne), Rick Amor: A Single Mind, 22 March – 13 July 2008, no. 2, ed. 1/12.
British Museum 2011: British Museum, London, Out of Australia: Prints and Drawings from Sidney Nolan to Rover Thomas, 26 May – 11 September 2011, no. 83, ed. 3/12.
Art Gallery of South Australia 2016–17: Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, Rick Amor: Contemporary Romantic, 2 December 2016 – 30 April 2017 [no catalogue].
Literature
Gary Catalano, The Solitary Watcher: Rick Amor and His Art, Melbourne University Press, Carlton South, Victoria, 2001, p. 38. For an illustration of the painting Morning train, 1968, see pl. 3.
Linda Short (ed.), Rick Amor: A Single Mind (exh. cat.), Heide Museum of Modern Art, Bulleen, Victoria, 2008, pp. 118–19 (illus.), 152.
Stephen Coppel, Out of Australia: Prints and Drawings from Sidney Nolan to Rover Thomas (exh. cat.), British Museum Press, London, 2011, p. 135 (illus.).
Collections
State Library of Victoria, Melbourne: nineteen state impressions, numbered 1 through 19; ed. 6/12.
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide: ed. 1/12 (20155G130).
British Museum, London: ed. 3/12 (2006,0730.26).
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra: ed. 9/12 (91.793).
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne: ed. 10/12 (2012.396).
Comment

The subject of this etching is a man who used to sell newspapers on the corner of Swanston Street and Flinders Lane, Melbourne, whom Amor would see every day on his way to the National Gallery of Victoria Art School (NGVAS). Both the subject matter and the rendering, with its emphatic contours, systematic vocabulary of marks, and deep biting, recall the works of Amor’s teacher John Brack, especially his etchings of medical subjects. However, the process of developing the image across a large number of states  reflects directly the teaching of Murray Walker (b. 1937), Amor’s etching teacher at the NGVAS. The nineteen states of E.002 form a programmatic record of the procedures and steps involved in creating an etching, and document a learning process. The way in which the image has been deliberately and methodically constructed betrays its origins as one of Amor’s earliest works; however, it is also the most fully realized and successful of his early etchings. The lessons of intaglio printmaking, especially the opportunities it affords for changing an image by reworking the plate, were something that Amor would continue to exploit, albeit in an instinctive rather than a systematic way.

The major changes in the development of the image began in the second state, with the addition of details identifying the three blank sheets of paper as newsprint, followed by the addition of tonal open-bite etching in the fourth state, the introduction of a large cross shape behind the figure in the tenth state, and the insertion of multi-directional patches of diagonal hatching in the twelfth state.

This etching preceded several painted versions of the subject. The first was a small oil, which remains in Amor’s collection. A larger version in oils was submitted in 1968 as a scholarship painting to the NGVAS; this work was destroyed by the artist in 1969. Another, related version was painted in 1974.

Gary Catalano observed that the man’s likeness reappears in the large central figure in Morning train, a painting that also dates from 1968 (Catalano 2001), and he saw this as evidence of the early development of Amor’s personal vocabulary of images. Stephen Coppel has suggested that the dense mesh of hatching that covers the image in the etching might be seen as a metaphor for the man’s entrapment in his disabled condition (Coppel 2011). The defining – and confining – cross shape behind the man supports such a reading of the image.

The copper plate on which E.002 was made has been lost.

Keywords
Male figure
URL
https://catalogue.rickamor.com.au/works/intaglio/newspaper-seller/

Record last updated 09/02/2021
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