"I think it's becoming
of an artist to be honest about themselves."
Rick Amor
The appointment of Rick Amor in 1999 as the Australian War
Memorial’s Official War Artist for the Australian Army’s deployment of troops
in East Timor was an astute choice. In Amor’s work there is a sense of
desolation, an impending danger. As art critic John McDonald wrote in 2008 “His
self portrait (as a drinker) of 1986-88 is one of the bleakest, hardest stares
into the mirror in all Australian art.”
About his East Timor appointment Amor said “The sort of art I normally do, a lot of it deals with
the aftermath, and it's rather sombre work. I also believe in taking art from
reality. So I thought it would fit in perfectly with what I've been doing for
the past ten years."
Now in his 60’s with
successful battles against alcoholism and cancer behind him, Amor continues to
paint his poignant still moments with their implication of the seen reality
masking an offstage action. “One of the main themes in my work is the passing
of time,’ he says. “The vanity of human wishes, things pass, things decay and
the passing of time seems to have an emotional resonance with me. I keep on
returning to it over and over again.”
He has also developed a reputation
as a portrait painter. Perhaps his entering the Archibald Prize nine times has
something to do with it. Whilst never having won that icon of Australian art he
has been rewarded with a solo exhibition, 21 Portraits, at the National
Portrait Gallery which is on show until the 1st of March 2015.
Five of the works in the
exhibition are self portraits, for as Amor says “The artist paints self
portraits because the model is always there – and free.”
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