E.026 The rock and the sea (small plate) 1990

• I. 1st state of 3, 1990

  

  Etching. On an improbably dilapidated pier, surrounded by stormy seas, a lone figure stands gesturing, with left arm raised, and looking towards a huge monolith on the horizon. The subject is substantially complete in its details, but the tonal contrasts are unresolved.

  Impression on wove Stonehenge paper (according to Amor’s intaglio record books), 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 3, 1990

  Etched hatching has been added to the sky, the rock, the sea, the pier and the figure’s raised left arm. There are two variant impressions of this state.

  1. Impression on wove 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’.
  2. Lighter impression on wove 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’. Although inscribed ‘3’, this is an impression of the second state.

• III. 3rd and final state, 1990

  The central area of the rock has been burnished so as to emphasize its great mass. There are two variant impressions of this state.

  1. Impression on wove paper, 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’. Although inscribed ‘4’, this is an impression of the third and final state.
  2. Dark and crisp impression on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘A/P’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’90’. (Featured Image)

• III.b. Artist’s proof of 3rd and final state, 1990 (Featured Image)

  

  The central area of the rock has been burnished so as to emphasize its great mass. There are two variant impressions of this state.

• Edition, 1991

  Nominal edition of ten, but only four impressions were printed and numbered. These are on wove BFK Rives paper (according to Amor’s intaglio record books) and were printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. No impressions have been sighted.

• Comment

  This etching belongs to a cluster of similar compositions, painted, drawn and printed. It is based closely on a woodcut made earlier in 1990, but with the composition reversed. The large rock in E.026 is based loosely on the Baker’s Oven, one of the limestone rocks in the ocean off Port Campbell, in south-western Victoria. However, the roots of the image more broadly are to be found in the painting Nightmare, 1982, in which the protagonist, arms outstretched, also stands in the foreground on a broken-down pier surrounded by stormy seas (Lindsay 2005). The painting was made at a time of personal crisis for Amor, when his first marriage was foundering. Nonetheless, the motif of a man about to be swamped by the sheer might of an angry sea survived in the artist’s work, due to the power of this imagery in conveying a wide range of metaphoric meanings.

  The development of E.026 through three states was straightforward, beginning with a fairly resolved first state, to which was added more etching; this resulted in clearer definition of the subject and a greater sense of nightmarish drama. The tiny human figure was ultimately submerged almost completely in the mesh of the etching, overwhelmed by the forces of nature. In the final state, the burnishing of the monolithic rock refined its volumetric quality and thus gave added weight to its massive presence.

  Later in 1990, Amor etched a larger, horizontal version of this subject, as a subscription print for the Print Council of Australia (cat. no. E.028).