Bridget Riley
Painter of experimental, abstract art
Origins of Bridget Riley
- Evacuated from Cornwall during the war as a child.
- She lost her father in the war for many years.
- No school for many years.
- Not far from the coast.
- Nothing to do but walk around and enjoy Cornwall
- Looks at the patterns and interlocking shapes of nature that come to the surface when she is making art.
Education
- Chapnam Lady’s College
- Spent time in the National Gallery of London
- Goldsmith’s
- Royal College of Art
Building up your color of tonality
- Learned from Georges Seurat
- Explored pointillism in Pink Landscape (1960)
- Found that the style did not allow her to express the dazzle, glitter, hot air
British Art
- Nothing to look at
- ”Infectious apathy and vicious insularity”
White Chapel
- Show for contemporary artists
- Brian gave artists confidence to express their original ideas
Inspired by Italian abstract painters
- Dazzling black and white paintings that had never been seen before
- Accessible
- Drew nature, a dynamic landscape, as color and forces
Abstract artist
She doesn’t consider herself an abstract artist but she uses the term because she doesn’t know the exact term for what it is.
Each painting is interpreted by a viewer’s own perception.
Rhythm and Repetition at the root of Movement
Where the simple, basic forms become visually active.
Repetition is an amplifier for single events that would be barely visible seen alone.
Rhythm brings the piece alive.
Op Art in the 1960's
Her bold, new style coincided with the Op Art craze in the early 1960s.
Mind-bending art used patterns to create optical illusions.
Psychadelic experiences
Her op art exhibition in the Museum of Modern Art made her a famed international artist.
Her art went from painting galleries to fashion
Commercialization of her work without her permission.
3D Painting that Enveloped the Audience
”Mistake” that led her to go back to flat paintings
No such thing as mistakes
Move from black and white to colors
Color in light and painting act in different ways - for painting to act the same way, separate the colors and wait for the viewer to blend the colors when they are viewing it.
British International Prize for Painting
First woman, first british contermporary painter
SPACE
Empty warehouses for utopian community of artists to work
Egypt
Processional manner - The figures walked across the areas, so her colors would walk along a space
New color palette
Art on the hospital walls
Move away from stripes
Diagonal hatching broke down the stripes
Expressionism
Public focus shifted to expressionism, and people were liking her work less
Architecture of Art
National Gallery, Hayward Gallery Exhibits
A fresh way of seeing