Bridget Riley: Op Art and Optical Frequencies

• Bridget Riley is a British artist born in 1931
• Riley is celebrated since the mid-1960s for her vibrant paintings
• Her paintings are called "Op Art"

Fall (1963)

• Riley said she tried to organise a field of visual energy that accumulates until it reaches maximum tension
• From 1961 to 1964 she worked with black and white contrast
• She occasionally introduced tonal scales of grey
• The single perpendicular curve repeats to create a field of varying optical frequencies
• A gentle relaxed swing prevails in the upper part
• The curve is rapidly compressed towards the bottom
• The composition verges on disintegration without the structure ever breaking

Blaze (1964)

• Example of artwork exhibiting use of zigzags

Movement in Squares (1961)

• The chequerboard goes haywire
• As the grid approaches the middle, it distorts, accelerates and then plunges to infinity

White Disks (1964)

• Bridget Riley wrote about the uncertainties of a drawn structure increasing when composed of similar, repeated elements
• Because they are small and compacted, these elements begin to fuse while they are easy to separate when they are big

Color & Technique

• Bridget Riley explores optical phenomena
• She juxtaposes color either by using a chromatic technique of identifiable hues or by selecting achromatic colors (black, white or gray)
• Riley's work appears to flicker, pulsate and move, encouraging the viewer's visual tension.
• She spent two years copying Seurat's painting, Bridge of Courbevoie, to learn about his painting technique and his use of complementary colors.
• Soon after, in 1966, Riley began to use color to achieve new optical effects by juxtaposing lines of complementary pure colours
• Riley works meticulously, carefully mixing her colours to achieve the exact hue and intensity she desires.
• She explores colour interaction first in small gouache colour studies, then moving to full-size paper-ad-gouache designs.
• Canvases are then marked up and painted entirely by hand first in acrylics, then in oil.

Dominance Portfolio, Blue (1977)

• Riley is interested in visual effects
• She comments "The eye can travel over the surface in a way parallel to the way it moves over nature. It should feel caressed and soothed, experience frictions and ruptures, glide and drift.
• One moment, there will be nothing to look at and the next second the canvas seems to refill, to be crowded with visual events
• Riley continues to work in black, white and gray
• "Clarity of color, order of mind...no gratuitous brushwork" is important to her
• Riley also recognizes the relationship between music and painting, as did artists such as Kandinsky.