Hand-signed A. Rainer.

'Blue Hour' by Arnulf Rainer is an etching from 2017, hand-numbered from an edition of 25, and signed in pencil below the plate. The image field is a dense, near-square rectangle of deep navy, its surface built entirely from overlapping hatched lines scratched directly into the plate. The marks shift direction in broad diagonal bands — tighter and more compressed toward the lower left, looser and more sweeping in the upper right — creating a sense of layered pressure rather than flat colour. Rainer, co-founder of Vienna's Hundgruppe alongside Brauer and Mikl, built his practice around the physical act of mark-making as a means of surfacing states inaccessible through conscious control. In that context, the etching medium is apt: the irreversible, resistant nature of working into a metal plate aligns with his long-standing interest in the body's unguarded gestures. The cream margins of the sheet keep the printed field sharply contained.