BRIDGET RILEY (STORBRITANNIEN, FÖDD 1931). "Revision of Study 7/7/86".

Gouache on paper, 68.5 x 64 cm. Signed and dated -86.

PROVENIENCE
Gallery Juda Rowan
Konstruktiv Tendens

BRIDGET RILEY

During her 70-year long and ongoing career, Bridget Riley has used colour, line and geometric patterns to explore the elements of abstract painting. Vertical and horizontal stripes, circles, triangles, rhomboids and curved bands that rhythmically move across the picture plane become in Riley's hands brilliant visual fields that seem to shimmer, blink and glow.

Born in 1931 in London, England, Riley was educated at Goldsmiths College and the Royal College of Art. After a few years as an illustrator at an advertising agency, Riley devoted herself wholeheartedly to art and in 1962 she exhibited for the first time. She then showed a series of black and white paintings whose lines explore the dynamics of vision, disorienting effects and optical illusions. The rhythmic lines and curves seem to vibrate on the canvas. The initially monochrome paintings developed over time into colorful, intricate investigations of our visual perception.
During the 60s, Riley began working with "Stripe paintings" where stripes of different colors were placed next to each other. The 70s meant many trips, one of which went to Egypt. There she was captivated by colorful hieroglyphs and developed something she calls "The Egyptian palette". These colors, which the Egyptians used for thousands of years, became the basis for a series of strict paintings in strong colors - "Egyptian stripes".

In 1986 work began on what became "The Rhomboid Paintings". Unlike the previous series' limited palette, Riley here worked with over 100 carefully blended colors and a new shape, the rhombus, was introduced. The construction of the works creates a diagonal movement that rises from the left towards the upper right corner and the previous verticality is thrown out of play. The auction's work "Revision of Study 7/7/86" is an early elegant work from this series. The strong but soft colors move from the left corner up to the right in a dynamic movement. The diamonds make each color interact with four other colors instead of two as in previous works, creating a new complexity. The impression is systematic but moving.

Riley is inevitably strongly associated with op art but should perhaps be seen primarily as one of the foremost abstract painters of her generation. She has exhibited worldwide and is represented in collections such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Moderna Museum, Stockholm; Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Siegen, Germany; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; National Gallery, Berlin; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; and Tate, London to name a few.

Has resale rights.

For questions, please contact jokaim.geiger@auktionsverket.se.