E.131 Solitary life 2004; reworked 2005

• I. 1st state of 5, 2004

  Etching. A man, seen from behind, sits facing a window in a large room; at his right is his reflection or the shadowy outline of another seated person. The room is reminiscent of a storage area in an old museum, with air conditioning ducts in the ceiling, and water or sewerage pipes at the lower right. In the left foreground stands a plinth supporting a large sculpture of an ancient Egyptian head viewed from the rear. There are two variant impressions of this state.

  1. Cleanly wiped impression on wove BFK Rives paper with watermark, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘1-1’; lower centre: ‘Solitary Life’; lower right: signed and dated ‘R Amor 04’.
  2. Dark, selectively wiped impression on wove BFK Rives paper with watermark, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘2-1’; lower centre: ‘Solitary Life’; lower right: signed and dated ‘R Amor 04’.

• I.a. 1st state of 5, 2004

  

  Etching. A man, seen from behind, sits facing a window in a large room; at his right is his reflection or the shadowy outline of another seated person. The room is reminiscent of a storage area in an old museum, with air conditioning ducts in the ceiling, and water or sewerage pipes at the lower right. In the left foreground stands a plinth supporting a large sculpture of an ancient Egyptian head viewed from the rear. There are two variant impressions of this state.

• II. 2nd state of 5, 2004

  Areas of the plate have been burnished in order to suggest more light entering the room and to emphasize the size of the space. The burnishing is prominent on the right of the window and to the right of the seated man, as well as on the ceiling. There are two variant impressions of this state.

  1. Cleanly wiped impression on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘1-2’; lower centre: ‘Solitary Life’; lower right: signed and dated ‘R Amor 04’.
  2. Cleanly wiped impression on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘2-2’; lower centre: ‘Solitary Life’; lower right: signed and dated road‘R Amor 04’.

• III. 3rd state of 5, 2004

  

  Further burnishing has been applied throughout the plate, including at the lower left of the sculpture and on its right side, making its volume now more apparent; burnishing is also prominent on the right wall and in the area of light around the seated man, whose outline now appears to dissolve.

  Impression on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘1-3’; lower centre: ‘Solitary Life’; lower right: signed and dated ‘R Amor 04’.

• IV. 4th state of 5, 2004

  The outline of the man’s head has been restored and the dark shadows on the right wall have been strengthened with additional etching. There are four variant impressions of this state.

  1. Cleanly wiped impression on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘1-4’; lower centre: ‘Solitary Life’; lower right: signed and dated ‘R Amor 04’.
  2. Dark, selectively wiped impression with much plate tone, on wove Magnani paper with watermark. Printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘2-4’; lower centre: ‘Solitary Life’; lower right: signed and dated ‘R Amor 04’. In this dark impression, the areas to the left and right of the seated figure can barely be made out.
  3. Selectively wiped impression with plate tone, on wove Magnani paper with watermark, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘3-4’; lower centre: ‘Solitary Life’; lower right: signed and dated ‘R Amor 04’.
  4. Cleanly wiped impression on wove Magnani paper with watermark, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘4-4’; lower centre: ‘Solitary Life’; lower right: signed and dated ‘R Amor 04’.

• IV.d. 4th state of 5, 2004

  

  The outline of the man’s head has been restored and the dark shadows on the right wall have been strengthened with additional etching. There are four variant impressions of this state.

• First edition, 2004, as Lonely life

  The title has been changed for this edition to Lonely life. Edition of twenty numbered impressions, with dark plate tone and selective wiping, on wove Velin Arches paper, printed by Rosalind Atkins at the Australian Print Workshop, Fitzroy (Melbourne), September 2004. The edition included a bon à tirer impression, two artist’s proofs and two APW workshop proofs. Each impression is inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘[status of impression]’ [or] ‘[1 through 20]/20’; lower centre: ‘Lonely Life’; lower right: signed and dated ‘R Amor 04’.

  Edition sheet size: 255 x 285 mm

• V. 5th and final state, 2005 (Featured Image)

  

  According to Amor, additional burnished modelling was applied to the sculpture in this state, although this is difficult to see, due to the presence of plate tone on the state impression and on the impressions of the second edition.

  Selectively wiped impression with plate tone, on wove paper, printed by Rosalind Atkins at the Australian Print Workshop, Fitzroy (Melbourne), September 2005. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘AP’; lower centre: ‘Solitary Life’; lower right: signed and dated ‘R Amor 05’.

• Second edition, 2005

  Edition of ten numbered impressions, on wove Velin Arches paper, printed uniformly with plate tone by Rosalind Atkins at the Australian Print Workshop, Fitzroy (Melbourne), September 2005. The edition included a bon à tirer impression, an artist’s proof and two APW workshop proofs. Each impression is inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘[status of impression]’ [or] ‘[1 through 10]/10’; lower centre: ‘Solitary Life’; lower right: signed and dated ‘R Amor 05’.

  Edition sheet size: 283 × 380 mm

• Comment

  A version of the subject of E.131, set in an anonymous bureaucratic space, first appeared in Amor’s work in the painting Study for ‘Interview’, 2002 (Niagara Galleries 2004). This painting was succeeded in 2003 by Study for ‘Solitary life’, a small oil showing a composition similar to that in Study for ‘Interview’ but incorporating a rear view of an ancient sculpture, thereby making it clear that the setting depicted was a museum. The present etching is based closely on this small study, but is in reverse orientation.

  The architectural features of the setting have been drawn from several locations. The central window comes from the Nicholas Building (built 1926), on the corner of Swanston Street and Flinders Lane, Melbourne, and the details of the wall at right are from the old Victoria Brewery, East Melbourne (built 1882). The sculpture on the plinth at left, seen from the rear, is an Egyptian sculpture at the British Museum, London.

  The etching was commissioned as a fundraiser for the Australian Print Workshop. Although he inscribed all of the state impressions of 2004 with the title ‘Solitary Life’, Amor decided to change the print’s title for the 2004 fundraising edition, and he retitled the work Lonely life. The edition, of twenty impressions, sold out. In 2005 the etching was taken through a fifth and final state and a second edition, of ten impressions; it now reverted to its original title, Solitary life.

  The close cross-hatching used to define the image in the first state gave way in the second and third states to progressive lightening with a burnishing tool. Despite this, the first edition of E.131 (2004) was printed with dark plate tone and selective wiping. Although the final state involved further burnishing, the second edition (2005) was also printed with plate tone.