E.178 The Tent 2018

• I. 1st state of 4, 2018

  Etching, drypoint and foul-biting. A view of a white circus tent in a muddy field. The big top tent has a dark, square opening to the lower right of the tent, a large canvas seam running from the central pinnacle to the lower right, and two flagpoles (one on the centre of the visible tent and one partially hidden on a distant pinnacle). An elephant is positioned in front of the tent to centre left and in the background before the horizon there is a suggestion of shadowy trees. The tent has been composed mainly of etched lines (apart from a dark line of drypoint running from the top of the tent to the lower right), whereas the elephant, the muddy field, trees and the cross-hatched clouds have been darkened with drypoint. Foul-biting has created light, atmospheric marks in the formerly clear portions of the sky.

  Impression on wove BFK Rives paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil below the plate-mark: lower left ‘1-1’, lower centre ‘the Tent’, signed and dated lower right ‘R… Amor ‘18’.

• II. 2nd state of 4, 2018

  

  A distinct flag has been added to the top of the circus tent at the centre of the print. Overall the mud, elephant and background trees have been significantly deepened with drypoint, whereas the clouds immediately to the left of the tent, and the vertical walls of the tent, have also been darkened with drypoint. Horizontal lines have been added to area between the lower left of the tent and the trees on the horizon. Some parallel vertical lines have been added to the prominent water puddle in the lower right.

  Impression on wove BFK Rives paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil below the plate-mark: lower left ‘1-2’, lower centre ‘the Tent’, signed and dated lower right ‘R… Amor ‘18’.

• III. 3rd state of 4, 2018

  The second tent pole, which was hard to detect in the earlier states, has been overdrawn and is now more prominent. The rim of tent’s roof has been emphasised with additional drypoint. Long horizontal lines have been added to the lower right puddle. The prominent central cloud formation has been darkened, and overall additional atmospheric foul-biting has appeared in the sky, particularly in the uppermost section.

  Impression on wove Hanhnemühle paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil below the plate-mark: lower left ‘1-3’, lower centre ‘the Tent’, signed and dated lower right ‘R… Amor ‘18’.

• IV. 4th and final state, 2018

  The clouds and the lower sky have been lightened by removing drypoint burr with a scraper and burnisher, thus creating a softer transition from the bright tent to the overcast sky.

  Impression on BFK Rives paper with watermark, printed by Rick Amor in his Aphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below plate mark: lower left: ‘1-4’; lower centre: ‘The Tent’; lower right: signed and dated ‘R.. Amor ‘18’

• First edition, 2018

  Edition of ten, with two numbered impressions with plate tone, on wove Somerset paper with watermark, printed by Rosalind Atkins at Kate Herd’s studio, Alphington. The edition included one artist’s proof. Both impressions are inscribed in pencil below the plate-mark: lower left ‘[1 through 2]/10’, lower centre ‘The Tent’, signed and dated lower right ‘R.. Amor ‘18’.

   

  Edition sheet size: 380 x 285 mm

• Edition impression, 2018 (Featured Image)

  

• Comment

  Elephants have appeared occasionally in Amor’s paintings, such as The turning season from 2000 and Dream from 2020. In these two works the animal dominates the scene as either a wild threat to the urban landscape (the former) or the embodiment of a monumental calm. In The Tent, the elephant appears in a more expected place, in front of a circus big-top in which it might be the star performer. Rather than dominating the print, the elephant is positioned left of centre and it is dwarfed by the enormous tent, which sits in a large, empty waterlogged field with a distant boundary of trees. Domesticated and removed from the wild, the animal projects a strong melancholia. Apart from the elephant and the trampled field, whose surface has been destroyed by the activity of the circus, there are no other signs of life. Although it remains at a distance, the elephant appears uncontained by a fence or restraints and Amor has positioned the viewer inside the field with the beast. While the scene is less phantastic than some of Amor’s previous artworks featuring elephants, the solitary, The artist notes that he often dreams of elephants and speculates that it is their great size that is significant to him.

   

  There is also an earlier version of the subject in painted in oils, with a prepatory sketch. W.H. Chong has written of the related painting:

  “The picture is elegiac but not nostalgic. It is resolutely free of irony; there are no visual winks or nudges. The vapourous sky, lone elephant, chalk-white tent and churned earth impart a bleak, unsentimental tone. The scene is mysterious — Where is everyone? Is the season over? Is apocalypse now? Everything is still and silent, on the brink.”

  Only two of the planned edition of ten was completed in 2018, as the artist was unsatisfied with the print at the time.