June, 1992

Bridget Riley is an English artist best known for her work in the Op Art movement. Her signature pieces explore optical illusions using geometric patterns in black and white. Though her early works focused primarily on these colors with occasional additions of gray scale tones, she included colors in her later works. Her explorations of colors led to experimentation with how colors in patterns create the sensation of movement within compositions. She was inspired by her extensive travels to include color palettes from the places she visited. Notable examples of this process include Shadow Play, an oil on canvas from 1990, which was inspired by her study of hieroglyphs in Egypt ten years earlier. Bridget Riley is also known for her murals created for museums in London, and Paris. In addition, she has written about influential artists, curated exhibits of the works of Paul Klee, Piet Mondrian, El Greco, Rubens, Paul Cézanne and many others; working with noted art historians. Riley’s 1964 painting Current was exhibited in The Responsive Eye shown at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City in 1965. This work is credited with initiating global attention to the Op Art movement. While her optical art experimentation may be her best known, she also studied the work of George Seurat and gave many notable presentations concerning how his work influenced her style. (Artist website)