Bridget Riley British, b. 1931

Bridget Riley is a leading figure in British abstraction, whose paintings and works on paper explore the relationship between colour, form and visual perception. Associated with the emergence of Op Art in the 1960s, she developed a distinctive visual language of geometric patterns, rhythmic lines and contrasting tones that create sensations of movement, vibration and spatial ambiguity. Initially working in black and white, Riley began introducing colour in the late 1960s, investigating its capacity to alter the experience of looking. Printmaking has remained an integral part of her practice since 1962, with screenprinting offering a means of exploring precise colour relationships, repetition and optical effects. Her prints extend the investigations of her paintings while retaining their own formal and experimental possibilities.

Riley gained international recognition following her participation in The Responsive Eye at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1965. In 1968, she represented Great Britain at the Venice Biennale, becoming the first woman to receive the International Prize for Painting. Major retrospectives have been held at Tate Britain, London (2003), the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris (2008), and the Hayward Gallery, London (2019-2020). Her work is held in major international collections, including Tate, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Art Institute of Chicago.