Belem, Berardo Collection, Centro Cultural de Belem, Lisbon, Portugal

Material: Collection: Berardo Collection

BIOGRAPHY

WRITTEN BY: The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica See Article History Alternative Title: Bridget Louise Riley Bridget Riley, in full Bridget Louise Riley, (born April 24, 1931, London, England), English artist whose vibrant optical pattern paintings were central to the Op art movement of the 1960s.

Riley spent her childhood in Cornwall and attended Goldsmiths College (1949–52; now part of the University of London) and the Royal College of Art (1952–55; B.A.). Until 1960 she painted primarily impressionistic landscapes and figures. Her study of the Pointillists, particularly Georges Seurat, led her to experiment with colour juxtaposition and optical effects, and under the influence of Victor Vasarely and others, her work took on a geometric abstraction, in which intricate patterns of black and white and, later, alternating colours were calculated to produce illusions of movement and topography. In 1965 she participated with Vasarely, Yaacov Agam, and others in a noteworthy international exhibition entitled “The Responsive Eye” at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City. She won a first prize for painting at the Venice Biennale in 1968. Her notable works include Drift No. 2 (1966) and Nineteen Greys (1968).

She was named a Companion of Honour in 1998 and won the Japan Society’s Praemium Imperiale for Painting in 2003. She was elected a foreign honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2006.

SOURCE: WRITTEN BY: The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica