E.029 The gate 1990

• I. 1st state of 6, 1990

  Mezzotint. The curve of a large overpass dominates the left half of this composition, while the right half of the image is mainly occupied by the front part of a nineteenth-century building, at the corner of which is a stone pillar topped by a sphere. In the space between the two structures stand three figures; the one closest to the foreground is depicted in silhouette. All the essential elements of the composition are present, having been roughly burnished in.

  Impression on wove Fabriano paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘1 [circled]’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’90’.

• II. 2nd state of 6, 1990

  

  The composition has been evened out tonally and the figures are now better defined. Burnishing has brightened the highlight near the centre of the plate.

  Impression on wove Fabriano paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘2 [circled]’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’90’.

• III. 3rd state of 6, 1990

  The light near the centre of the plate has been further burnished.

  Impression on wove Fabriano paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘3 [circled]’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’90’.

• IV. 4th state of 6, 1990

  The surface of the large pier at the left has been burnished more evenly. The base of the nearer of the central piers has been defined more clearly and the light areas behind the figures have been brightened.

  Impression on wove Fabriano paper with watermark, printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘4 [circled]’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’90’.

• V. 5th state of 6, 1990

  The three oblique plumes of half-light in the upper right corner have been given greater definition.

  Impression on wove Fabriano paper with watermark, printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘5 [circled]’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’90’.

• VI. 6th and final state, 1990

  The tonal transitions of the light tones have been smoothed out and these areas slightly lightened with the burnisher. The triangle of light in the lower right corner has been burnished more evenly. There are two variant impressions of this state.

  1. Impression on wove Fabriano paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘6 [circled]’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’90’.
  2. Impression on cream wove Stonehenge paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘7 [circled]’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’90’. Although inscribed ‘7’, this is an impression of the sixth and final state.

• Edition, 1991

  Edition of ten numbered impressions, on cream wove Stonehenge paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. The edition included a bon à tirer impression. Each impression is inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘[status of impression]’ [or] ‘[1 through 10]/10’; lower centre: ‘The Gate’; lower right: ‘Rick Amor ’91’.

• Bon à tirer impression (edition, 1991; impression of 6th and final state) (Featured Image)

  

  The tonal transitions of the light tones have been smoothed out and these areas slightly lightened with the burnisher. The triangle of light in the lower right corner has been burnished more evenly.

• Comment

  This mezzotint is based closely on a painting of the same title, also made in 1990 (Catalano 2001), and is oriented in the same direction. In turn, the mezzotint became the model for a woodcut, similarly titled and again made in 1990. Catalano (2001) describes the location depicted in E.029: ‘the road and overpass in The Gate are based on the junction of Market and Flinders streets [Melbourne] though the architectural elements on the right-hand side of the painting are taken from the Supreme Court building in another part of the city’ (p.108). Catalano also notes that the overpass seen in the painting is based on one of Amor’s photographs, but has been completely transformed; this, one might add, is true of the motif as rendered in the print as well.

  E.029 is Amor’s second mezzotint and he managed to complete it without resorting to etching, as he had done in North Devon, made earlier in 1990 (cat. no. E.024). Unlike the painting, with its sulphurous colour reminiscent of a sudden, illuminating flash, the mezzotint has a tonality that is characteristically dark and mysterious. Amor coaxed the image out of darkness in small increments, over six states, using the burnishing tool carefully so as to keep in balance the light and the dark tones.