Bridget Riley

Bridget Riley (born 1931) artist known for her singular Op Art paintings. Her use of gradients and variations in tone stems from her admiration for the Pointillist Georges Seurat. “The eye can travel over the surface in a way parallel to the way it moves over nature. It should feel caressed and soothed, experience frictions and ruptures, glide and drift,” she said of her work. “One moment, there will be nothing to look at and the next second the canvas seems to refill, to be crowded with visual events.” Today, Riley is often grouped along with other practitioners of Op Art such as Victor Vasarley and Richard Anuszkiewicz.

Riley studied at Goldsmiths College from 1949 to 1952 and the Royal College of Art from 1952 to 1955. Her works are currently held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Tate Gallery in London, and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice.

related works

• In our sister gallery, form & concept, Brett Kern similarly plays with illusion by creating an inflatable plastic effect out of his immutable porcelain designs. View his work.

• Conceptual artist Sol LeWitt was a pioneer of radical aesthetics. Using simple lines as building blocks, he created a vast oeuvre of complex patterns and vivid colors. View his work. 

•  Noted "Wizard of Op" Richard Anuszkiewicz similarly uses bright, geometric forms to play with the optical experience of viewing art. View his work.