Bridget Riley
###‘I try to organise a field of visual energy which accumulates until it reaches maximum tension’ - BR
London-based artist Bridget Riley studied art at Goldsmiths College (1949–52) and graduated with a BA from The Royal College of Art (1952–55). She worked at J. Walter Thompson advertising agency as an illustrator.
In the Winter of 1958 she was heavily impacted by a Jackson Pollock exhibition. Between 1958 and 1959 her work at the advertising agency showed her adoption of a style of painting based on pointillism, a painting technique in which small, distinct dots of color are applied in patterns to form an image. in 1960 she developed a style in which she explored the dynamic potential of optical phenomena. These so-called 'Op-art' pieces, such as Fall (1963), produce a disorienting physical effect on the eye. In 1965, Riley exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art in the New York City show,'The Responsive Eye', which drew worldwide attention to her work and the Op Art movement.
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‘I try to organise a field of visual energy which accumulates until it reaches maximum tension’, Riley said of 'Fall' (this work).
“Repetition acts as a sort of amplifier for visual events which seen singularly would hardly be visible. But to make these basic forms release the full visual energy within them, they have to breathe, as it were, to open and close, or to tighten up and relax.” — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_G9eGzxQq2U
- "At the End of my Pencil"
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Bridget Riley speaks about her work
transcription:
"rhythm and repetition are at the root of movement. they create a situation within which the most simple basic forms become visually active. by massing them and repeating them they become more fully present. reputation acts as a sort of amplifier for visual events which seen singularly would hardly be visible. but to make these basic forms release the full visual energy within them, they have to breathe, as it were, to open and close, or to tighten up and relax. a rhythm that is alive has to do with changing pace and feeling how the visual speed can expand and contract, sometimes go slower and sometimes go faster. the whole thing must live."
