Bridget Riley
Bridget Riley
Bridget Louise Riley CH CBEis an English painter who is one of the foremost exponents of Op art. She currently lives and works in London, Cornwall and the Vaucluse in France...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionPainter
Date of Birth24 April 1931
squares giving essentials
I couldn’t get near what I wanted through seeing, recognizing and recreating, so I stood the problem on its head. I started studying squares, rectangles, triangles and the sensations they give rise to It is untrue that my work depends on any literary impulse or has any illustrative intention. The marks on the canvas are sole and essential agents in a series of relationships which form the structure of the painting.
term
I work with nature, although in completely new terms.
loss thinking christianity
I think this lack of a center has something to do with the loss of certainties that Christianity had to offer
spiritual thinking painting
Painting is, I think, inevitably an archaic activity and one that depends on spiritual values.
reality belief interpretation
There was a time when meanings were focused and reality could be fixed; when that sort of belief disappeared, things became uncertain and open to interpretation.
activity
Focusing isn't just an optical activity; it is also a mental one.
law keys enquiry
Painting is a science pursued as an enquiry into the laws of nature...Observation is considered the key to natural science.
thinking order magic
The word 'paradox' has always had a kind of magic for me, and I think my pictures have a paradoxical quality, a paradox of chaos and order in one.
color identity roles
For me nature is not landscape, but the dynamism of visual forces, an event rather than an appearance. These forces can only be tackled by treating color and form as ultimate identities, freeing them from all descriptive or functional roles.
artist patterns way
As the artist picks his way along, rejecting and accepting as he goes, certain patterns of enquiry emerge.
exercise two mind
I work on two levels. I occupy my conscious mind with things to do, lines to draw, movements to organize, rhythms to invent. In fact, I keep myself occupied. But that allows other things to happen which I'm not controlling... the more I exercise my conscious mind, the more open the other things may find that they can come through.
games play space
If you can allow colour to breathe, to occupy its own space, to play its own game in its unstable way, it's wanton behaviour, so to speak. It is promiscuous like nothing.
mind way use
I never make studies from nature. They would get in the way. I make use of my mind.
landscape force visuals
For me nature is not landscape, but the dynamism of visual forces.