E.109 Under the bridge 1997; reworked 1998

• I. 1st state of 7, 1997

  Etching. A horizontal composition showing (in reverse) the Brooklyn Bridge, New York, viewed from Robert F. Wagner Sr. Place in Lower Manhattan, looking towards Brooklyn, with the bridge on the left. Under the bridge are parked cars. On the right, curving into the lower right corner, is an access road with street lights, and with cars alongside it at the left. In the foreground, a man wearing an overcoat stands, facing left, beside the first street light. At the right is a tall building, and just beyond it is a glimpse of the river, above which rise the buildings on its opposite bank. The composition is etched and its details have been fully resolved. There are two variant impressions of this state.

  1. Cleanly wiped impression on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘1/2’; lower centre: ‘Under the Bridge’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor 97’.
  2. Impression with light plate tone, on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘2/2’; lower centre: ‘Under the Bridge’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor 97’.

• I.a. 1st state of 7, 1997

  

  Etching. A horizontal composition showing (in reverse) the Brooklyn Bridge, New York, viewed from Robert F. Wagner Sr. Place in Lower Manhattan, looking towards Brooklyn, with the bridge on the left. Under the bridge are parked cars. On the right, curving into the lower right corner, is an access road with street lights, and with cars alongside it at the left. In the foreground, a man wearing an overcoat stands, facing left, beside the first street light. At the right is a tall building, and just beyond it is a glimpse of the river, above which rise the buildings on its opposite bank. The composition is etched and its details have been fully resolved. There are two variant impressions of this state.

• II. 2nd state of 7, 1997

  Etched hatching has been added to many areas of the plate, including the bridge’s two towers, the area beneath the access road, and the building at right. Vertical shading has been added to the roadway at left, suggesting reflections in puddles of water. There are two variant impressions of this state.

  1. Cleanly wiped impression on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘3 [circled]’; lower centre: ‘Under the Bridge’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor 97’. Although inscribed ‘3’, this is an impression of the second state.
  2. Dark, selectively wiped impression with plate tone, on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘4 [circled]’; lower centre: ‘Under the Bridge’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor 97’. Although inscribed ‘4’, this is an impression of the second state.

• II.a. 2nd state of 7, 1997

  

  Etched hatching has been added to many areas of the plate, including the bridge’s two towers, the area beneath the access road, and the building at right. Vertical shading has been added to the roadway at left, suggesting reflections in puddles of water. There are two variant impressions of this state.

• III. 3rd state of 7, 1997

  

  The man in the overcoat has been burnished out. Loose drypoint strokes, suggesting an imminent squall, appear in the sky. The nearer tower of the bridge is now very dark.

  Cleanly wiped impression on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘5 [circled]’; lower centre: ‘Under the Bridge’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor 97’. Although inscribed ‘5’, this is the third state.

• IV. 4th state of 7, 1997

  More drypoint has been added to the sky at left. There are three variant impressions of this state.

  1. Cleanly wiped impression on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘6 [circled]’; lower centre: ‘Under the Bridge’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor 97’. Although inscribed ‘6’, this is an impression of the fourth state.
  2. Dark, selectively wiped impression with plate tone, on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘7 [circled]’; lower centre: ‘Under the Bridge’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor 97’. Although inscribed ‘7’, this is an impression of the fourth state.
  3. Dark impression with much plate tone, on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘8 [circled]’; lower centre: ‘Under the Bridge’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor 97’. Although inscribed ‘8’, this is an impression of the fourth state.

• V. 5th state of 7, 1997

  Parts of the bridge’s nearer tower have been burnished back so as to introduce tonal variety and thereby provide the image with a greater sense of plasticity and tonal depth. There are three variant impressions of this state.

  1. Cleanly wiped impression on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘9 [circled] 1/3’; lower centre: ‘Under the Bridge’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor 97’. Although inscribed ‘9 1/3’, this is an impression of the fifth state.
  2. Very dark, selectively wiped impression with much plate tone, on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘9 [circled] 2/3’; lower centre: ‘Under the Bridge’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor 97’. Although inscribed ‘9 2/3’, this is an impression of the fifth state.
  3. Bright, cleanly wiped impression on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘9 [circled] 3/3’; lower centre: ‘Under the Bridge’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor 97’. Although inscribed ‘9 3/3’, this is an impression of the fifth state.

• V.a. 5th state of 7, 1997

  

  Parts of the bridge’s nearer tower have been burnished back so as to introduce tonal variety and thereby provide the image with a greater sense of plasticity and tonal depth. There are three variant impressions of this state.

• VI. 6th state of 7, 1997

  Much drypoint has been added to the sky, heightening the appearance of turbulent weather and the sense that there is a storm arriving from the left. There are three variant impressions of this state.

  1. Impression with plate tone, on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘AP I’; lower centre: ‘Under the Bridge’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor 97’.
  2. Dark impression with plate tone, on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘AP II’; lower centre: ‘Under the Bridge’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor 97’.
  3. Cleanly wiped impression on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘AP III’; lower centre: ‘Under the Bridge’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor 97’.

• First edition, 1997

  Nominal edition of ten, but only two impressions were printed and numbered. These are on wove paper and were printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Each impression is inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘[1 or 2]/10’; lower centre: ‘Under the Bridge’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor 97’.

• VII. 7th and final state, 1998

  The tonality of the entire plate has been lightened through burnishing in key areas, including the sky, the bridge piers, the two road signs at the upper left, the wall below the access road, and the building at right. There are three variant impressions of this state.

  1. Cleanly wiped impression on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘AP I’; lower centre: ‘Under the Bridge’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor 98’.
  2. Dark impression with plate tone, on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘AP II’; lower centre: ‘Under the Bridge’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor 98’.
  3. Cleanly wiped impression on buff wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘AP III’; lower centre: ‘Under the Bridge’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor 98’. (Featured Image)

• VII.c. 7th and final state, 1998, on buff paper (Featured Image)

  

  The tonality of the entire plate has been lightened through burnishing in key areas, including the sky, the bridge piers, the two road signs at the upper left, the wall below the access road, and the building at right. There are three variant impressions of this state.

• Second edition, 1998

  Nominal edition of ten, but only five impressions were printed and numbered. These are on wove paper and were printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Each impression is inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘[1 through 5]/10’; lower centre: ‘Under the Bridge’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor 97’.

  Edition sheet size: 280 x 380 mm

• Comment

  This etching reprises the composition of Exit ramp (cat. no. E.108), which also depicts New York’s Brooklyn Bridge. Having produced seven states and an edition of Exit ramp, Amor judged the representation of the Brooklyn Bridge in that work to be insufficiently imposing for the grand structure that the bridge is in reality. He therefore repeated the subject almost immediately, giving the new print a different title: Under the bridge.

  By adjusting the view through a shift in perspective, he was able to give the bridge a more monumental appearance in the present etching. The upper road leading to the bridge’s nearer tower is now a sharp diagonal, reaching the upper left corner of the image, while the tower itself appears taller than the building at the far right (instead of seeming to be diminished by it, as in Exit ramp).

  In both E.108 and E.109, Amor grappled with the representation of scale. In the case of Exit ramp, he eventually cut the plate, reworked the image slightly through burnishing, and gave the resulting, vertical print a new name; in the case of Under the bridge, he persisted with the horizontal composition, but removed the foreground figure and added detail to the bridge’s nearer tower.

  The copper plate on which E.109 was made has been cancelled.