E.073 Passage 1993; reworked 1997

• I. 1st state of 10, 1993

  

  Drypoint. A man carrying a suitcase is seen walking along a walkway between two massive structures. On the left are large nineteenth-century rusticated columns and on the right is the smooth-faced foundation or wall of a concrete modernist building. The view in the distance is of trees and buildings, including one with a prominent dome. The subject is summarily scored in drypoint.

  Impression on wove Arches paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘1 [circled]’; lower centre: ‘Passage’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’93’.

• II. 2nd state of 10, 1993

  Hatching and cross-hatching have been added to the shadows and to elements in the middle distance. Drypoint accents have been added to the sky. There are two variant impressions of this state.

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

• II.a. 2nd state of 10, 1993

  

  Hatching and cross-hatching have been added to the shadows and to elements in the middle distance. Drypoint accents have been added to the sky. There are two variant impressions of this state.

• III. 3rd state of 10, 1993

  Drypoint has been added to the sky and to the illuminated segment of architecture at the left. There are two variant impressions of this state.

  1. Impression on wove Arches paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘4 [circled]’; lower centre: ‘Passage’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’93’. Although inscribed ‘4’, this is an impression of the third state.
  2. Impression with rich burr and plate tone, on wove Arches paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘5 [circled]’; lower centre: ‘Passage’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’93’. Although inscribed ‘5’, this is an impression of the third state.

• III.b. 3rd state of 10, 1993

  

  Drypoint has been added to the sky and to the illuminated segment of architecture at the left. There are two variant impressions of this state.

• IV. 4th state of 10, 1993

  Drypoint has been added to select areas of the architecture at the left. Strong, near-vertical, long lines of drypoint have been added to the architecture at the upper left and upper right. Several strong vertical lines now define the vertically oriented plane at the far right. There are two variant impressions of this state.

  1. Cleanly wiped impression on wove Arches paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘6 [circled]’; lower centre: ‘Passage’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’93’. Although inscribed ‘6’, this is an impression of the fourth state.
  2. Selectively wiped impression with rich burr, on wove Arches paper with watermark, printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘7 [circled]’; lower centre: ‘Passage’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’93’. Although inscribed ‘7’, this is an impression of the fourth state.

• V. 5th state of 10, 1993

  Long, widely spaced lines of drypoint have been added along the left edge. There are four variant impressions of this state.

  1. Cleanly wiped impression on wove Arches paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘AP I’; lower centre: ‘Passage’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’93’.
  2. Selectively wiped impression with rich burr and plate tone, on wove Arches paper with watermark, printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘AP II’; lower centre: ‘Passage’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’93’.
  3. Selectively wiped impression with heavy plate tone and dragged-up wiping at left, on wove Arches paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘AP III’; lower centre: ‘Passage’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’93’.
  4. Cleanly wiped impression on wove Arches paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘AP IV’; lower centre: ‘Passage’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’93’. The middle distance has been wiped so cleanly as to make it almost disappear.

• VI. 6th state of 10, 1993

  

  The plate has been reworked, with burr having been burnished away and replaced with etching. Foul biting is evident, especially in the upper sky.

  Impression on wove Arches paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘8 [circled]’; lower centre: ‘Passage’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’93’. Although inscribed ‘8’, this is the sixth state.

• VII. 7th state of 10, 1993

  The foul biting in the sky has been burnished out. There are two variant impressions of this state.

  1. Impression on wove Arches paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘9 [circled]’; lower centre: ‘Passage’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’93’. Although inscribed ‘9’, this is an impression of the seventh state.
  2. Unevenly printed impression on wove Arches paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘10 [circled]’ [written over erased ‘AP I’]; lower centre: ‘Passage’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’93’. Although inscribed ‘10’, this is an impression of the seventh state.

• VIII. 8th state of 10, 1993

  Drypoint has been added in various areas of the plate.

  Impression on wove Arches paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘AP V’; lower centre: ‘Passage’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’93’.

• IX. 9th state of 10, 1993

  

  New etched lines have been introduced to the man’s shadow, and drypoint has been added just below the tree in the middle distance.

  Dark, selectively wiped impression on wove Arches paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘11 [circled]’ [written over erased ‘AP I’]; lower centre: ‘Passage’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’93’. Although inscribed ‘11’, this is the ninth state.

• Edition, 1993

  Nominal edition of ten, but only two impressions were printed and numbered. These are on wove paper and were printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Each impression is inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘[1 or 2]/10’; lower centre: ‘Passage’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’93’.

  Edition sheet size: 444 x 381 mm

• X. 10th and final state, 1997

  Etching has been added to many areas of the plate, creating a dark image in which the figure of the man is almost swallowed up by the deep shadows. An area of foul biting at the bottom centre edge appears as an irregular light patch. There are three variant impressions of this state.

  1. Impression on soft white wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘AP I/III’; lower centre: ‘Passage’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’97’. (Featured Image)
  2. Impression on soft white wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘AP II/III’; lower centre: ‘Passage’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’97’.
  3. Impression on soft white wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘AP III/IV’; lower centre: ‘Passage’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’97’.

• X.a. Artist’s proof of 10th and final state, 1997 (Featured Image)

  

  Etching has been added to many areas of the plate, creating a dark image in which the figure of the man is almost swallowed up by the deep shadows. An area of foul biting at the bottom centre edge appears as an irregular light patch. There are three variant impressions of this state.

• Comment

  The scene depicted here is a view from the south bank of the Yarra River, beneath Princes Bridge, across to the dome of Flinders Street Station in central Melbourne. The rusticated masonry belongs to pillars of the bridge (built 1886–88), and the smooth concrete wall to the lower part of the Melbourne Concert Hall (now Hamer Hall).

  This drypoint is one of three print versions of the subject, the others being a large woodcut of 1993, which shows the scene from a very slightly different perspective, and a small etching begun in 1996 and reworked in 1998 (cat. no. E.107).

  The first five states of E.073 were rendered entirely in drypoint, but the need for crisper definition of architectural details, and for clearer spacial recession, prompted Amor to burnish back the plate in the sixth state and to introduce etching to the matrix. The following three states combined work in etching and drypoint; in 1993 the artist began printing a small edition, but printed only two impressions.

  Amor returned to the plate four years later, in 1997, having in the meantime created the small etched version of the subject (cat. no. E.107). He reworked the large plate, adding considerably more etching and thereby producing a substantially darker image overall. However, he decided against printing a second edition.

  E.073 was made on the verso of the copper plate earlier used for Arthurs Creek, 1991–92 (cat. no. E.058), which was later reworked as Strathewen, 2014 (cat. no. E.058.1).