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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
- Catalogue Number
- E.109
- Title and Date
- Under the bridge
1997; reworked 1998
- Description of Featured Image
- A horizontal composition showing (in reverse) the Brooklyn Bridge, New York, viewed from Robert F. Wagner Sr. Place in Lower Manhattan, looking towards Brooklyn. Under the bridge are parked cars. Curving into the lower right corner is an access road with street lights, and with cars alongside it at the left. 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.
- Where Made
- Alphington, Melbourne
- Medium Category and Technique
- Intaglio Print: Etching, drypoint and burnishing on copper
- Support
- Wove paper. Identified papers: No papers identified.
- Dimensions
-
Image size: 221 x 330 mm
Matrix size: 221 x 330 mm - Artist’s Record Number
- RAE.117 (1997), RAE.119 (1998)
- Printer(s) and Workshop(s)
- All impressions printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio.
- Summary Edition Information
- Seven states. Two editions. First edition: nominal edition of ten, but only two impressions printed and numbered, 1997. Second edition: nominal edition of ten, but only five impressions printed and numbered, 1998.
- Exhibitions
- Niagara Galleries 1998: Niagara Galleries, Richmond (Melbourne), Rick Amor, 22 September – 17 October 1998, no. 35, ed. 1/10, 1998.
- Collections
- State Library of Victoria, Melbourne: eleven state impressions, numbered 1/2, 2/2, 3 through 8, 9-1/3, 9-2/3, 9-3/3, all dated 1997; ed. 1/10, dated 1997; AP III, dated 1998.
- National Gallery of Australia, Canberra: ed. 3/10, with plate tone, dated 1998 (2007.744)
- 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.
- Keywords
- Bridge, Brooklyn Bridge, New York
- URL
- https://catalogue.rickamor.com.au/works/intaglio/under-the-bridge/
Record last updated 16/02/2021