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The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders both past and present.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that this website contains images of deceased persons.

The Gallery’s Acknowledgement of Country, and information on culturally sensitive and restricted content and the use of historic language in the collection can be found here.

Self portrait

1999
Rick Amor

drypoint on paper, edition A/P 1 (sheet: 39.5 cm x 36.5 cm, image: 32.5 cm x 21.5 cm)

Rick Amor is a painter, printmaker and sculptor. After studying in Melbourne and winning many prizes and grants, from 1975 to 1983 he produced a series of cartoons attacking the Fraser government. After 1983 he began to paint more personal and emotionally-charged works, often incorporating a haunting ‘solitary watcher’. Some of his paintings of suburban and inner Melbourne now number amongst the defining images of the city. He is a regular exhibitor in the Wynne and Sulman Prizes, as well as the Archibald, in which he was a finalist nine times between 1976 and 2005. During the 1990s Amor was awarded several art residencies and worked in Barcelona, New York and London. In 1999, appointed Australia’s first official war artist since Vietnam, he travelled to East Timor to record the reconstruction efforts of peacekeepers. The resulting works are in the collection of the Australian War Memorial. Although he describes himself as an amateur sculptor, his disturbing black dog has crouched outside the National Gallery of Australia since 2004, and he won the $100 000 McClelland Sculpture Prize in late 2007. Amor has painted scientist Peter Doherty and governor-general Peter Cosgrove on commission for the National Portrait Gallery, which mounted the exhibition Rick Amor: 21 Portraits in 2014–2015.

Gift of the artist 2005. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
© Rick Amor/Copyright Agency, 2024

The National Portrait Gallery respects the artistic and intellectual property rights of others. Works of art from the collection are reproduced as per the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). The use of images of works from the collection may be restricted under the Act. Requests for a reproduction of a work of art can be made through a Reproduction request. For further information please contact NPG Copyright.

Artist and subject

Rick Amor (age 51 in 1999)

Subject professions

Visual arts and crafts

Donated by

Rick Amor (21 portraits)

© National Portrait Gallery 2024
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Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia

Phone +61 2 6102 7000
ABN: 54 74 277 1196

The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders past and present. We respectfully advise that this site includes works by, images of, names of, voices of and references to deceased people.

This website comprises and contains copyrighted materials and works. Copyright in all materials and/or works comprising or contained within this website remains with the National Portrait Gallery and other copyright owners as specified.

The National Portrait Gallery respects the artistic and intellectual property rights of others. The use of images of works of art reproduced on this website and all other content may be restricted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). Requests for a reproduction of a work of art or other content can be made through a Reproduction request. For further information please contact NPG Copyright.

The National Portrait Gallery is an Australian Government Agency