‘Looking is, I feel, a vital aspect of existence. Perception constitutes our awareness of what it is to be human, indeed what it is to be alive.’ Bridget Riley, 2019
Bridget Riley (b. 1931) is one of the most respected artists working in Britain today. Her remarkable career spans seventy years of uncompromising and remarkable innovation. Through her observations of the natural world, her experience of looking at the work of other artists, and through experimentation, Riley has made a deep, personal investigation of the act of painting and of how we see. In her abstract paintings, Riley generates dynamic energy, rhythm, movement, light and space, investigating the ways in which painting can engage their viewer.
The exhibition at the Royal Scottish Academy is the largest survey of Riley’s work to be held in Scotland. The exhibition places particular emphasis on the origins of Riley’s practice from her early experimentation with George Seurat’s ‘pointillism’ to the iconic black-and-white works of the 1960s to her expansive explorations into colour, wall paintings and recent works as well as studies that reveal Riley’s working methods.
We will be joined by Lucy Askew, Senior Curator at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, who has worked very closely with Bridget Riley to realise this spectacular exhibition.
