Later this month Rick Amor will be exhibiting his work at Philip Bacon Galleries Brisbane. This is a great chance for sun soaked Queenslanders to take a step inside the hallowed commercial gallery and be transported to the evocative and brooding world of one of the country’s most prominent figurative painters. Although you will find your fair share of shadows and brood in the work, Amor is able to transcend the initial quietness found in his paintings and transfix the viewer with gorgeously light infused and structural representations of the world we live in. Amor is able to masterly manipulate light in his works, often offset by a dark physical presence or structure.
With his skilful representations of artists zones that have captivated him enough to want to portray them- his works are loaded with intent. The artist has an unrivalled understanding of tonality; his warm palette allows him to set up narratives and dark forbidding skies that set a complex psychological pattern to each work. Within each painting he works hard to create an interesting composition that pushes himself and the viewer. These images are never immediate – but like all good artists the works reveal themselves over time.
Born in 1948 in Frankston, Victoria, Amor has been inspired by the Australian landscape and particularly urban images, most often in his hometown of Melbourne. What is noticeable
and most probably a differentiating point that makes his work look individual as opposed to that of the other great Australian urban painter Jeffery Smart, is that Amor’s work has the feel of American toughness to it – leaning more to the ‘Ashcan’ school of Eakins or Bellows, rather than Smart’s Italian influences or the stillness of a Piero Della Francesca.
Distinctly American imagery crops up in Amor’s work regularly, which are remnants of western industrialisation. Having worked in New York, scenes of the city frequently appear in his oeuvre as a reverent tip of the hat to the influence of quiet figurative American painters like Harvey Dinnerstein. Just like the devotion Amor has to the suburban and urban backstreets of Melbourne which he regularly frequents, Dinnerstein had a history of documenting his home areas of Brooklyn and Manhattan Island. And like his influences, Amor paints with instinct.
He has foregone the fanciful trends since he first showed in 1974 and has remained committed as a proponent of figuration with a sense of ‘soul’. These works are more than a documentation of an area; they speak of human reflection, presence and a soulful encapsulation of those untraceable moments that make up a life. Amor has had a respected career, he has been the recipient of several Australia council studio residences working in Barcelona and New York, and in 1999 he was appointed the official Australian artist with the peacekeeping troops in East Timor by the Australian War Memorial. He has held well over 40 solo shows with a number of surveys and publications devoted to his work.
This is a wonderful opportunity for Brisbane audiences to experience the quality of paint firsthand and see what this master craftsmen has committed his life to- representing the modern world with experiential wisdom and not the hype.
Philip Bacon Galleries
28 October to 22 November, 2014
Queensland
Memory of a grounded ship, 2014, oil on canvas, 97 x 130cm
Self-portrait, 2014, oil on canvas, 46 x 46cm
Courtesy the artist and Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane
