Published on the occasion of the major exhibition at David Zwirner in London, this fully illustrated catalogue offers intimate explorations of paintings and works on paper produced by the legendary British artist over the past 50 years, focusing specifically on her recurrent use of the stripe motif. Riley has devoted her practice to actively engaging viewers through elementary shapes such as lines, circles, curves and squares, creating visual experiences that at times trigger optical sensations of vibration and movement. The London show, her most extensive presentation in the city since her 2003 retrospective at Tate Britain, explored the stunning visual variety she has managed to achieve working exclusively with stripes, manipulating the surfaces of her vibrant canvases through subtle changes in hue, weight, rhythm and density. Created in close collaboration with the artist, the publication's beautifully produced color plates offer a selection of the iconic works, including Riley's first stripe works in color from the 1960s, a series of vertical compositions from the 1980s that demonstrate her so-called "Egyptian" palette, and an array of her modestly scaled studies, executed with gouache on graph paper and rarely before seen. A range of texts about Riley's original and enduring practice grounds and contextualizes the images, including new scholarship by art historian Richard Shiff, texts on both the artist's wall paintings and newest body of work by Paul Moorhouse, Twentieth-Century Curator at the National Portrait Gallery in London, and a 1978 interview with Robert Kudielka, her longtime confidant and foremost critic. Additionally, the book features little-seen archival imagery of Riley at work over the years; documentation of her recent commissions for St. Mary's Hospital in West London; and installation views of the London exhibition itself.
Born in London in 1931, Bridget Riley attended Goldsmiths College from 1949 to 1952 and the Royal College of Art from 1952 to 1955. In 1974 she was made a CBE and in 1999 appointed the Companion of Honour. In 1968 she won the International Prize for Painting at the Venice Biennale. Recent international museum shows include Bridget Riley: Paintings and Related Work, National Gallery, London (2010); Bridget Riley: From Life, National Portrait Gallery, London (2010); Bridget Riley: R trospective, Mus e d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (2008); and Bridget Riley: Reconnaissance, Dia Center for the Arts, New York (2000).