Bridget Riley: Learning from Seurat
Texts by Karen Serres and Barnaby Wright. Bridget Riley in conversation with Éric de Chassey. Preface by Ernst Vegelin van Claerbergen
Focusing on Bridget Riley’s seminal encounter with a painting by Georges Seurat, this volume demonstrates how studying Seurat has enabled Riley to extend and transform her visual language.
In 1959, Riley’s copy of Seurat’s The Bridge at Courbevoie (1886–87) offered the artist a new understanding of colour and tone, which led her to produce her first major works of pure abstraction during the early 1960s. This volume accompanies an exhibition at The Courtauld Gallery, London (17 September 2015–17 January 2016) that presents Riley’s paintings with this key work by Seurat in the museum’s collection. Brought together for the first time, it demonstrates a ‘shared preoccupation with perception’ at pivotal points throughout three decades of Riley’s career.
Alongside full-colour illustrations, it includes an introductory text by Karen Serres and Barnaby Wright, an interview with the artist by Éric de Chassey, as well as two essays written by Riley that offer her insights on Seurat’s importance to her own practice.
Publisher: Ridinghouse / The Courtauld Gallery
Artists: Bridget Riley
Contributors: Éric de Chassey, Bridget Riley, Karen Serres, Ernst Vegelin van Claerbergen, Barnaby Wright
Designer: Tim Harvey
Printer: Studio Fasoli, Verona, Italy
Publication Date: 2015
Binding: Softcover
Dimensions: 8 1/4 x 8 1/4 (21 x 21 cm)
Pages: 80
Reproductions: 25 color
ISBN: 9781909932159
Retail: $19.95 | £12.95
Status: Available
Bridget Riley
One of the most significant artists working today, Bridget Riley’s dedication to the interaction of form and color has led to a continued exploration of perception. From the early 1960s, she has used elementary shapes such as lines, circles, curves, and squares to create visual experiences that actively engage the viewer, at times triggering optical sensations of vibration and movement. Her earliest black-and-white compositions offer impressions of several other pigments, while ensuing, multi-chromatic works present color as an active component. Although abstract, her practice is closely linked with nature, which she understands to be “the dynamism of visual forces—an event rather than an appearance.”