Editing Bridget Riley (section)

==Work==

It was during this period that Riley began to paint the black and white works for which she first became known. They present a great variety of geometric forms that produce sensations of movement or colour. In the early 1960s, her works were said to induce a variety of sensations in viewers, from seasickness to the feeling of [[sky diving]]. From 1961 to 1965, she worked with the contrast of black and white, occasionally introducing tonal scales of grey. Works in this style comprised her first 1962 solo show at Musgrave's Gallery One, as well as numerous subsequent shows. For example, in ''Fall'', a single perpendiculars curve is repeated to create a field of varying optical frequencies.<ref>[http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/riley-fall-t00616 Bridget Riley, ''Fall'' (1963)] [[Tate]].</ref> Visually, these works relate to many concerns of the period: a perceived need for audience participation (this relates them to the [[Happening]]s, which were common in this era), challenges to the notion of the mind-body duality which led [[Aldous Huxley]] to experiment with [[hallucinogenic drugs]];<ref>[[Aldous Huxley|Huxley, Aldous]] (1954) ''[[The Doors of Perception]]'', Chatto and Windus, p. 15</ref> concerns with a tension between a scientific future which might be very beneficial or might lead to a [[nuclear war]]; and fears about the loss of genuine individual experience in a Brave New World.<ref>Introduction to Frances Follin, Embodied Visions: Bridget Riley, Op Art and the Sixties, Thames and Hudson 2004</ref> Her paintings since 1961, have been executed by assistants.<ref name="nytimes.com"/> She meticulously plans her composition's design with preparatory drawings and collage techniques; her assistants paint the final canvases with great precision under her instruction.<ref name="Practising Abstraction">Practising Abstraction, Bridget Riley talking to Michael Craig-Martin in ''Bridget Riley, Dialogues on Art'', p. 62</ref>

Riley began investigating colour in 1967, the year in which she produced her first stripe painting.<ref name="Tate Press Release">{{cite web| url=http://www.tate.org.uk/about/press-office/press-releases/bridget-riley |title=Press Release: Bridget Riley |publisher=Tate Gallery | date=17 March 2003 |access-date=18 September 2015}}</ref> Following a major retrospective in the early 1970s, Riley began travelling extensively. After a trip to [[Egypt]] in the early 1980s, where she was inspired by colourful [[hieroglyphic]] decoration, Riley began to explore colour and contrast.<ref name="Things to Enjoy">Things to Enjoy, Bridget Riley, talking to Bryan Robertson in ''Bridget Riley, Dialogues on Art'', p. 87</ref> In some works, lines of colour are used to create a shimmering effect, while in others the canvas is filled with [[tessellation|tessellating]] patterns. Typical of these later colourful works is ''Shadow Play''.

Some works are titled after particular dates, others after specific locations (for instance, Les Bassacs, the village near [[Saint-Saturnin-lès-Apt]] in the south of France where Riley has a studio).<ref>Karen Rosenberg (21 December 2007), [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9806E5DD103BF932A15751C1A9619C8B63 Bridget Riley] ''[[The New York Times]]''.</ref>

Following a visit to Egypt in 1980–81, Riley created colours in what she called her 'Egyptian palette'<ref>[http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=5088908 Bridget Riley, ''Ka 3'' (1980)] [[Christie's]] 20th Century British Art, London, 6 June 2008.</ref> and produced works such as the ''Ka'' and ''Ra'' series, which capture the spirit of the country, ancient and modern, and reflect the colours of the Egyptian landscape.<ref name="Bridget Riley"/> Invoking the sensorial memory of her travels, the paintings produced between 1980 and 1985 exhibit Riley's free reconstruction of the restricted chromatic palette discovered abroad. In 1983, for the first time in fifteen years, Riley returned to Venice to once again study the paintings that form the basis of European colourism. Towards the end of the 1980s, Riley's work underwent a dramatic change with the reintroduction of the diagonal in the form of a sequence of [[parallelogram]]s used to disrupt and animate the vertical stripes that had characterized her previous paintings.<ref>[http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=5101424 Bridget Riley, ''August'' (1995)] [[Christie's]] Post-War & Contemporary Art Evening Sale, London, 30 June 2008.</ref> In ''Delos'' (1983), for example, blue, turquoise, and emerald hues alternate with rich yellows, reds and white.<ref>Jörg Heiser (May 2011), Bridget Riley at Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin, ''[[Frieze (magazine)|Frieze]]''.</ref>

===Murals===
[[File:Bridget-riley-bolt-of-colour-1-chinati-foundatin-marfa-texas.jpg|thumb|''Bolt of Colour'', 2017–2019. Installation view, [[Chinati Foundation]], [[Marfa, Texas]]]]
Riley has painted temporary murals for the [[Tate]], the [[Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris]] and the [[National Gallery]]. In 2014, the [[Imperial College Healthcare|Imperial College Healthcare Charity Art Collection]] commissioned her to make a permanent 56-metre mural for [[St Mary's Hospital, London]]; the work was installed on the 10th floor of the hospital's Queen Elizabeth Queen Mother Wing, joining two others she had painted more than 20 years earlier.<ref>Caroline Davies (6 April 2014), [https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/apr/06/bridget-riley-london-hospital-ward Bridget Riley's bold colours boost London hospital ward] ''[[The Guardian]]''.</ref> Between 2017 and 2019 Riley completed a large wall painting for the [[Chinati Foundation]], [[Marfa, Texas]]. This was the largest work she had yet undertaken, covering six of the building's eight walls. The mural referenced her ''Bolt of Colour'' of 1983, for the [[Royal Liverpool University Hospital]] and made use of a similar palette of Egyptian colours.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://chinati.org/programs/chinati-announces-a-large-scale-new-wall-painting-by-bridget-riley-opening-in-october/|title=Chinati Announces A Large-scale New Wall Painting By Bridget Riley Opening In October &#124; The Chinati Foundation &#124; La Fundación Chinati|website=chinati.org}}</ref>

===On the nature and role of the artist===
Riley made the following comments regarding artistic work in her lecture ''Painting Now'', 23rd William Townsend Memorial Lecture, [[Slade School of Fine Art]], London, 26 November 1996:
{{blockquote|Beckett interprets Proust as being convinced that such a text cannot be created or invented but can only be discovered within the artist himself, and that it is, as it were, almost a law of his own nature. It is his most precious possession, and, as Proust explains, the source of his innermost happiness. However, as can be seen from the practice of the great artists, although the text may be strong and durable and able to support a lifetime's work, it cannot be taken for granted and there is no guarantee of permanent possession. It may be mislaid or even lost, and retrieval is very difficult. It may lie dormant, and be discovered late in life after a long struggle, as with [[Piet Mondrian|Mondrian]] or Proust himself. Why it should be that some people have this sort of text while others do not, and what 'meaning' it has, is not something which lends itself to argument. Nor is it up to the artist to decide how important it is, or what value it has for other people. To ascertain this is perhaps beyond even the capacities of an artist's own time.<ref name="Bracewell">{{cite web|url=http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/seeing_is_believing_1|title=Seeing is Believing|last=Bracewell|first=Michael|date=October 2008|publisher=Frieze Magazine|access-date=15 December 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101111073803/http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/seeing_is_believing_1/|archive-date=11 November 2010|df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref name="pn">{{cite journal|jstor=887465|last=Riley|first=Bridget|date=September 1997|title=Painting Now|journal=The Burlington Magazine|publisher=The Burlington Magazine Publications, Ltd.|volume=139|issue=1134|pages=616–622}}</ref>}}

===Writer and curator===
Riley has written on artists from [[Nicolas Poussin]] to [[Bruce Nauman]]. She co-curated ''Piet Mondrian: From Nature to Abstraction'' (with [[Sean Rainbird]]) at the Tate Gallery in 1996.<ref>[http://www.davidzwirner.com/exhibition/bridget-riley/?view=press-release Bridget Riley The Stripe Paintings 1961–2014, June 13 – July 25, 2014] [[David Zwirner]], London.</ref> Alongside art historian Robert Kudielka, Riley also served as curator of the 2002 exhibition "[[Paul Klee]]: The Nature of Creation", an exhibition at the [[Hayward Gallery]] in London in 2002.<ref>Alan Riding (10 March 2002), [https://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/10/arts/art-architecture-the-other-klee-the-one-who-s-not-on-postcards.html The Other Klee, the One Who's Not on Postcards] ''[[The New York Times]]''.</ref> In 2010, she curated an artists choice show at the [[National Gallery]] in London, choosing large figure paintings by [[Titian]], [[Paolo Veronese|Veronese]], [[El Greco]], [[Rubens]], Poussin, and [[Paul Cézanne]].<ref>Hilary Spurling (27 November 2010), [https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2010/nov/27/bridget-riley-national-gallery-review Bridget Riley at the National Gallery – review] ''[[The Guardian]]''.</ref><ref>Martin Gayford (10 December 2010), [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-10/colors-sway-curve-as-bridget-riley-confronts-old-masters-martin-gayford.html Colors Shimmer as Bridget Riley Confronts Old Masters: Review] ''[[Bloomberg L.P.|Bloomberg]]''.</ref>