Bridget Riley

 

 

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 Pink landscape – Bridget Riley 1960 – Oil on Canvas 101.5×101.5

  After meeting Maurice de Sausmarez, he became her mentor and introduced her to the artist Georges Seurat, who was a post-impressionist painter who specialized in pointillism. “Pink Landscape” is one of many efforts she made to conquer that style. This was part of the beginning of her trying to find her style or voice as an artist.

 

         Movement in squares – Bridget Riley 1961 – Tempera on board 122×122

One of the first times Riley delved into her early signature black and white style. With this piece, visual disruption is the key principle throughout. This is the start of her OP art (or optical art) pieces.

 

Fall – 1963 – Polyvinyl acetate paint on hardboard – 1410 x 1403 mm

In the piece Fall, a single perpendicular curve is repeated to create a field of varying optical frequencies. The upper part is more straightforward and easy to follow, while the curve is rapidly compressed towards the bottom of the painting. The composition seems to disorient the viewer by the end and create movement optically. She was quoted as saying, “I try to organize a field of visual energy which accumulates until it reaches maximum tension.”

 

Blaze – 1964 – Screen-print on paper – 530 x 521 mm

This piece, blaze, shows how complex these can get even though she only used black and white and simple lines and shapes for her first 7 or so years of getting initial recognition. A common observation is that in this stage she was making an aggressive and violent assault on the eye, one can notice it best by staring directly into the center.

Untitled (Fragment 1) – 1965 – Screen-print on plexiglass – 674 x 839mm

‘Fragment 3/11’ is one of seven extraordinary prints done by Riley in 1965. The series originated from unexplored themes that arose in preparatory studies for paintings. The piece has a floating like quality and the series marks the end of her using black and white exclusively.

Late Morning – 1967/1968 – Polyvinyl acetate paint on canvas –2261 x 3594 mm

Debuted at the 34th Venice Biennale of 1968, Chant 2 and Late Morning are two of three paintings which were the first instances that Riley fully embraced a palette of pure color, for which she was awarded the prestigious International Painting prize, making her the first woman and first Briton to win the prestigious accolade.

Cataract 3 – 1967/1968 – PVA on canvas – 223.5 x 222 cm

The colour groupings affected the spaces between them to produce fleeting glimpses of other colours and hence the illusion of movement. The piece seems to have pulsating waves moving across. Contrary to her work in previous years, Riley’s paintings of the late 1960s and 70s became mainly concerned with the visual and emotional response to color.

Song of Orpheus – 1978 – Acrylic on canvas – 195.6 x 259.7 cm

‘Song of Orpheus’ highlights the era where Riley focused more on twists and curves instead of visual disruption and minimal palette. Until 1978 Riley restricted herself to three colors for each of her paintings.  ‘Song of Orpheus’ series expanded this to five. This was only the beginning as her work would continue to expand.

Achæan – 1981 – Oil paint on canvas – 390 x 2023 mm

After a trip to Egypt in the early 1980s, she was inspired by colorful hieroglyphics.  Riley began to explore color and contrast, expanding her color pallets as well as amount/range of colors.  As a result of this experience Riley’s use of color underwent a further major development and she evolved what she called her ‘Egyptian palette’. She characterized this by colors of greater intensity than she had used previously, a development accompanied by her decision to change from acrylic to oil paint.

Gaillard – 1989 – Oil on linen-  166.4 x 226.1 cm

By the late 80s and early 90s her style evolved yet again. Her progression seems obvious as a whole but comparing her style from the early 60s and the early 90s, they are worlds apart. By this time she is focused on slightly diagonal shapes filled with color and hues with shimmering effects and tessellating patterns. Riley has followed an unusual course, for an abstract artist, in that she has tended to complicate rather than simplify her art as she has gone along.