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.
The central area of the rock has been burnished so as to emphasize its great mass. There are two variant impressions of this state.
- Catalogue Number
- E.026
- Title and Date
- The rock and the sea (small plate) 1990
- Description of Featured Image
- On an improbably dilapidated pier, surrounded by wild seas, stands a lone figure, gesturing with left arm raised, and looking towards a huge monolith on the horizon.
- Where Made
- Dunmoochin, Cottles Bridge
- Medium Category and Technique
- Intaglio Print: Etching and burnishing on copper
- Support
- Wove paper. Identified papers: Papers mentioned in notes on this work in Amor’s intaglio record books: Stonehenge and BFK Rives papers.
- Dimensions
-
Image size: 95 x 72 mm
Matrix size: 98 x 74 mm - Artist’s Record Number
- RAE.22 (1990, 1991)
- Printer(s) and Workshop(s)
- All impressions printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio, Cottles Bridge.
- Summary Edition Information
- Three states. Nominal edition of ten, 1991, but, according to Amor’s intaglio record books, only four impressions were printed and numbered.
- Exhibitions
- Niagara Galleries & NETS Victoria 1993–94: Niagara Galleries & NETS Victoria, Melbourne, Rick Amor & the Graphic Arts, Victorian and Tasmanian tour, 1993–94, no. 26.
- Literature
- For discussion of the painting Nightmare, 1982, see Robert Lindsay, Rick Amor: Standing in the Shadows (exh. cat.), McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Park, Langwarrin, Victoria, 2005, p. 7, illus. p. 17, pl. 4.
- Collections
- State Library of Victoria, Melbourne: four state impressions, numbered 1 through 4, all dated 1990.
- 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).
- Keywords
- Pier, Stormy sea
- URL
- https://catalogue.rickamor.com.au/works/intaglio/the-rock-and-the-sea-small/
Record last updated 09/02/2021