Bridget Riley Biography

Bridget Riley began working in the Op Art movement far before it was named as an official artistic movement. Still, she is best known for her black and white works from the 1960s that helped inspire the new style of contemporary art. It is said that her art was created to make a statement about absolutes. It is coincidental that they are viewed as optical illusions. Early Life Riley was born on April 24, 1931, in London. Her father and grandfather were both printmakers, so art was in her blood. She studied at Cheltenham Ladies College and later art at Goldsmiths College and the Royal College of Art in London. Artistic Style After her early, extensive artistic training, Bridget Riley spent several years casting about for her path. While working as an art teacher, she began exploring the interplay of shape, lines, and light, boiling these elements down to black and white (initially) in order to fully understand them. In 1960, she began working in her signature style — what many refer to today as Op Art, a display of geometric patterns that tricks the eye and produces movement and color. In the decades since, she has experimented with different mediums (and color, which can be seen in works like 1990s Shadow Play), mastered the art of printmaking, moved through differently shaped themes, and introduced color to her paintings. Her meticulous, methodical discipline is phenomenal. Important Works Movement in Squares, 1961Fall, 1963Dominance Portfolio (Red, Blue and Green) (series), 1977Ra2, 1981Conversation, 1993