
Etching. A depiction of a passageway between two heavily rusticated stone buildings, bridged at the top; beyond the passageway is a parapet, and beyond that a treed city landscape. A man, holding a briefcase, walks through the passage into the light, his shadow cast behind him. The sky is composed of many small, wispy strokes. The composition is complete. There are two variant impressions of this state.
Drypoint has been added to the foreground buildings, intensifying the contrasts between dark and light. There are two variant impressions of this state.
The illuminated areas of the foreground buildings at left have been lightened through burnishing, and the drypoint accents on the distant tree removed.
- Catalogue Number
- E.107
- Title and Date
- Passage
1996; reworked 1998
- Description of Featured Image
- A depiction of a passageway between two heavily rusticated stone buildings, bridged at the top; beyond the passageway is a parapet, and beyond that a treed city landscape. A man, holding a briefcase, walks through the passage into the light, his shadow cast behind him. Although inscribed ‘1-4’, this is actually an impression of the third state of this print.
- Where Made
- Alphington, Melbourne
- Medium Category and Technique
- Intaglio Print: Etching, burnishing and drypoint on copper
- Support
- Wove paper. Identified papers: BFK Rives paper with watermark: ‘BFK RIVES / FRANCE’ with infinity symbol.
- Dimensions
-
Image size: 115 x 90 mm
Matrix size: 115 x 91 mm - Artist’s Record Number
- RAE.114 (1996, 1998)
- Printer(s) and Workshop(s)
- All impressions printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio.
- Summary Edition Information
- Four states. Two editions. First edition: nominal edition of ten, but only two impressions printed and numbered, 1996. Second edition: nominal edition of ten, but only two impressions printed and numbered, 1998.
- Exhibitions
- Niagara Galleries at IWOP 1997: Niagara Galleries at the International Works on Paper Fair, Mitchell Galleries, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney, 17–20 July 1997, no. 11, 1996 edition.
- Collections
- State Library of Victoria, Melbourne: five state impressions, numbered 1-1 through 1-4, 2-4, all dated 1996; ed. 2/10, dated 1996; one state impression, numbered 1, dated 1998; ed. 2/10, dated 1998.
- National Gallery of Australia, Canberra: ed. 1/10, dated 1998 (2007.656).
- Comment
This etching repeats a composition that first appeared in two large prints made by Amor in 1993: a woodcut and a drypoint (cat. no. E.073), both titled Passage. Of the two, the drypoint has a squatter format and shows the passage as a larger opening. The vertically compressed space of the present composition, together with the resultant viewpoint, brings it closer to the woodcut.
The subject in these three works is based on the view from beneath Princes Bridge (built 1888) at Southbank, in central Melbourne, looking across the Yarra River towards Flinders Street Station, although in E.107 – due to the vantage point – neither the river nor the station is visible.
The first three states of the etching, which were worked in 1996, are concerned with establishing the monumentality of the buildings in the foreground, and the contrast between the dark, enclosed space of the passage and the scene in daylight beyond it. In the third state this contrast is marked, but the spatial recession remains blocked by the central tree in the distance. The tree was burnished back dramatically in the fourth and final state, of 1998, resulting in an image that strikingly depicts, in miniature, the passage from darkness to flooding daylight. In printing the edition impressions of E.107, Amor experimented with the wiping of the plate, and used buff as well as white papers.
- Keywords
- City, Man, Princes Bridge, Melbourne
- URL
- https://catalogue.rickamor.com.au/works/intaglio/passage/
Record last updated 16/02/2021