E.011 River 1989; reworked 1991

• I. 1st state of 6, 1989

  

  Etching. A view across a river, looking towards an industrial site with factory buildings and tall chimneys. At the lower left and lower centre is a breakwater of jagged boulders and blocks, and there are trees at the upper left. There is a crescent moon at the upper right. The etching is freely drawn, in a light, linear manner.

  Impression with light plate tone, on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘1 [circled]’; lower centre: ‘River’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’89’.

• II. 2nd state of 6, 1989

  More freely etched hatching has been added to the sky, the moon, and the factories in the distance; hatching has similarly been added to the rocks at the far left, the water beneath them, and the water at the lower right.

  Impression with plate tone, on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘A/P’; lower centre: ‘River’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’89’.

• Edition, 1990

  Nominal edition of ten, but, according to Amor’s intaglio record books, only two impressions were printed and numbered. These are on wove paper and were printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Edition impression 2/10 has been examined. It is inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘2/10’; lower centre: ‘The River’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’90’.

• Edition impression, 1990

  

  More freely etched hatching has been added to the sky, the moon, and the factories in the distance; hatching has similarly been added to the rocks at the far left, the water beneath them, and the water at the lower right.

• III. 3rd state of 6, 1991

  Open-bite etching has been added to the rocks and around the moon, an indication of the move from a linear to a tonal approach in working the image.

  Impression on wove BFK Rives paper with watermark, printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘1/5’; lower centre: ‘The River’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’91’. Although inscribed as an edition impression, this is the third state.

• IV. 4th state of 6, 1991

  Drypoint has been added throughout the plate, creating a scene of deep darkness, with the moon appearing as a stark white crescent. The sky has been darkened with more informal etched scribbles, while a series of parallel horizontal lines has been added to the sky at left. Drypoint has been introduced to the dark areas of the rocks.

  Impression with plate tone, on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘2/5’; lower centre: ‘River’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’91’. Although inscribed as an edition impression, this is the fourth state.

• V. 5th state of 6, 1991

  Vertical lines have been added to the reflection at the lower right.

  Impression on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘3/5’; lower centre: ‘River’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’91’. Although inscribed as an edition impression, this is the fifth state.

• VI. 6th and final state, 1991

  Roulette has been added to the rock in front of the tallest one and to a strip below the factory at centre right. There appear to be two variant impressions of this state.

  1. Dark, heavily inked impression on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘4/5’; lower centre: ‘River’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor 91’. Although inscribed as an edition impression, this is an impression of the sixth and final state. (Featured Image)
  2. Impression with much plate tone, on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘5/5’; lower centre: ‘River’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor 91’. This impression, although inscribed ‘5/5’, has been printed with such dark plate tone that the forms are difficult to read and it is thus impossible to identify the state precisely. The impression is therefore provisionally placed here. 

• VI.a. 6th and final state, 1991 (Featured Image)

  

  Roulette has been added to the rock in front of the tallest one and to a strip below the factory at centre right. There appear to be two variant impressions of this state.

• Comment

  This landscape is an imaginative merging of two locations. The background is based loosely on the area around Dight’s Falls on the River Yarra, in the inner Melbourne suburb of Richmond, with its industrial buildings; the rocky breakwater at the lower left is a reference to the river downstream, around Newport and Yarraville.

  With a crescent moon present in the first state, it is clear that this was always meant to be a nocturnal landscape. The expressive linearity of the initial state conveys an incipient drama, an aspect of the work that would be developed tonally through the succeeding five states, ending in a final state whose stark light–dark contrasts amplify the shadowy intensity of the composition.

  E.011 is an early example of the instinctively experimental approach that Rick Amor has to etching, and also speaks of his attraction to dark tone. Having completed the first two states, in 1989, Amor thought he would print an edition, but, after printing two impressions, in 1990, he decided to stop. He returned to the plate in 1991, and in a burst of activity reworked it, printing five impressions and inscribing them as though they were part of an edition. In reality, however, each of these impressions appears to be a new state, although the fifth impression is so dark that it is impossible to tell whether it constitutes an independent state.

  The verso of the copper plate used for E.011 was later used for the etching In Barri Gòtic, 1991 (cat. no. E.052).