Etching. On a sandy beach, before a stormy sea, stands a tall wooden structure on whose upper platform is a figure leaning out to sea. Another figure, also turned seaward, stands on the sand beneath the structure. The image is complete, but lightly etched. There are three variant impressions of this state.
An irregular band of light has been burnished into the sky, and some wispy etched strokes have been added there. There are four variant impressions of this state.
Drypoint accents have been added to the three wooden posts in the sand, to the big wave and to the beams of the upper floor of the structure at right. There are two variant impressions of this state.
- Catalogue Number
- E.117
- Title and Date
- Waiting by the sea
1998–99; titled The wait in 1998; retitled Waiting by the sea in 1999
- Description of Featured Image
- On a sandy beach, before a stormy sea, stands a tall wooden structure on whose upper floor a figure looks out to sea. Another figure, also turned seaward, stands on the sand underneath the structure.
- Where Made
- Alphington, Melbourne
- Medium Category and Technique
- Intaglio Print: Etching, burnishing and drypoint on copper
- Support
- Wove paper. Identified papers: BFK Rives paper with watermark: ‘BFK RIVES / FRANCE’ with infinity symbol; Hahnemühle paper with watermark: cockerel within a circle; Arches 88 paper with watermark: ‘Arches 88 / FRANCE’.
- Dimensions
-
Image size: 77 x 120 mm
Matrix size: 79 x 120 mm - Artist’s Record Number
- RAE.129 (1998, as Waiting by the sea)
- Printer(s) and Workshop(s)
- All impressions printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio.
- Summary Edition Information
- Five states. Edition of ten numbered impressions, 1999.
- Literature
- For discussion of the painting Waiting by the sea, 1998–99, see Robert Lindsay, Rick Amor: Standing in the Shadows (exh. cat.), McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Park, Langwarrin, Victoria, 2005, cat. no. 7, pp. 7 and 19 (illus.).
- Collections
- State Library of Victoria, Melbourne: seven state impressions, numbered 1/3, 2/3, 4 through 8, all dated 1998 (The wait); three state impressions, numbered 9 through 11, all dated 1999 (Waiting by the sea); ed. 3/10, dated 1999 (Waiting by the sea); AP I, dated 1999 (Waiting by the sea).
- National Gallery of Australia, Canberra: ed. 2/10, dated 1999 (Waiting by the sea) (2007.747).
- Comment
This etching is closely based on an oil painting, Waiting by the sea, 1998–99, whose dimensions are approximately 1 x 2 metres (Lindsay 2005). In E.117, Amor set himself the challenge of translating a large composition to a miniature format, without losing the painting’s sense of drama, especially as evoked by the comparative scale of figures to setting. One concession he made to the small dimensions of the print was to limit the number of figures looking out from the wooden structure to one, in place of the two figures in the painting. The derelict wooden structure is imagined and resembles the structures that Amor finds himself crawling through in his dreams.
The composition of E.117 was basically complete in the first state, whose three variant impressions show Amor to be experimenting, from the beginning, with plate tone. In the states that follow, he focused on tonal work in the sky and sea, first using a burnishing tool to add a stormy light, and then using etching to produce an inky darkness. Finally, in the fifth state, he added touches of deep black drypoint in order to underline the tonal contrasts and to heighten emotional tone.
This is the last etching Amor began in 1998 and he continued working on it through the following year. All impressions of the work that were printed in 1998 are inscribed with the title ‘The Wait’, while those printed in 1999 are inscribed ‘Waiting by the Sea’. Amor’s intaglio record books, however, list only the latter title.
- Keywords
- Sea, Storm, Stormy sea
- URL
- https://catalogue.rickamor.com.au/works/intaglio/the-wait/
Record last updated 16/02/2021