Bridget Riley

Bridget Riley

Riley was born at Norwood, London, the daughter of a businessman. Her childhood was spent in Cornwall and Lincolnshire. From 1949 to 1952 she studied at Goldsmiths' College and also studied at the Royal College of Art from 1952 to 1955. Riley began painting figures in an semi-impressionist manner. However she changed to pointillism around 1958 which she mainly produced landscapes. She was immensely inspired by Georges Seurat who was a French pointillism artists. In 1960 she changed her style in which she explored the potentialities of Op Art. Riley's Op Art pieces such as 'Hesitate' 1964.

Hesitate, 1964.

These type of pieces create a disorienting physical effect on the eye. Riley taught children for two years before joining the Loughborough School Of Art. This is where she initiated a basic course on design in 1959. Riley taught at Hornsey School of Art and in 1962, at Croydon School of Art. At Hornsey, Riley began her first Op Art paintings. She worked only in black and white and used only simple geometric shapes such as squares, lines and ovals. Although she investigated many areas of perception, Riley's work emphasises on the optical effects. This wasn't based on theory but maths and movement that the eye believe it sees within an image. Whilst teaching at Croydon, Riley gained her first critical recognition, her own solo exhibition. The J. Walter Thompson Group, an advertising company, hired Riley from 1960. However, in 1963-4 she gave up teaching and working at the advertising company.

 She was awarded  the AICA Critics Prize in 1963 as well as won an Section Prize at John Moores' Liverpool Open. This was followed by an invitation to show her work in the prestigious "New Generation" exhibition at the Whitechaple Gallery alongside Allen Jones and David Hockney. Riley was awarded a Peter Stuyvesant Foundation Travel bursary to the USA in 1964. Moreover, she won an International Painting Prize at the Venice Biennale in 1968. "For me nature is not landscape, but the dynamism of visual forces." - Bridget Riley.

Her first solo exhibition was held at Gallery One with a second solo show within the following year, 1962. Also her work was held at other various locations such as Nottingham University, 1963; New York, 1966; British Pavilion, 1968.

Bridget Riley's paintings became international notice when she exhibited her work along side Victor Vasarely, the Founder of Op Art. The piece that was noticed was "The Responsive Eye", 1965. This was one of her pieces that was featured on the cover on the exhibition catalogue. "The Responsive Eye" was a huge hit with the public but proved to be less popular with the critics. These critics dismissed the work as 'trompe l'oeil' (trick of the eye). Despite the critics, Riley help another popular exhibition in New York. Tickets sold out on the first day. "It seems the deeper, truer personality of the artist only emerges in the making of decisions... in refusing and accepting, changing and revising." - Bridget Riley.  

Bridget's piece titled 'Hesitate' is one of her few Op Art pieces that have colour within them. Even though this is various shades of blues and blacks, this creates a distorted image that can be rotated to create different effects. This piece is entirely made up of dots. To create the illusion, Bridget used varying sizes of ovals changing the height of them, effectively squishing them, to give the illusion. Moreover by adding multiple shades of black and blue, it creates a gradient through the piece making the illusive effect on our eyes greater. This piece is relatively harmonious when removing the illusion from the picture. In addition, when rotated (I believe) the illusion becomes far more effective than in its original state. Each of her pieces draw you in, confusing you and intriguing you. Each time we view these illusions we try to convince ourselves that the image isn't moving or has a 3D element. But as we rely on our eyes as our main sense, they betray us causing a nauseous, uneasy feeling which we either love or hate. "In general, my paintings are multi-focal. You can't call it unfocused space, but not being fixed to a single focus is very much of our time." - Bridget Riley.

Quotes From:
https://www.tate.org.uk/art
https://www.brainyquote.com/
https://artsandculture.google.com/