A FEAST FOR THE EYE
BRIDGET RILEY TO DAZZLE AUDIENCES AT THE MCA THIS SUMMER
14 December – 6 March 2004
‘No painter, dead or alive, has ever made us more aware of our eyes than Bridget Riley.’
Robert Melville, The New Statesman, 1970.
A major retrospective of works by
acclaimed British painter Bridget Riley
opens at the Museum of Contemporary
Art, Sydney, on Tuesday 14 December
2004.
One of Britain’s most respected artists
Riley’s distinguished career encompasses
over forty years of uncompromising and
remarkable innovation. Her distinctive,
optically vibrant paintings are celebrated for
their ability to engage the viewer’s
sensations and perceptions, producing visual
experiences
that
are
complex
and
challenging, subtle and arresting. A simple vocabulary of colours and abstract shapes form
the starting point for Riley’s paintings. From this she develops formal progressions, colour
relationships and repetitive structures to generate powerful sensations of movement, light
and space.
During her childhood, living in Cornwall, she formed an acute responsiveness to natural
phenomena. In particular, the effects of light and colour in the landscape made a deep
impression. Of her paintings, she has commented: ‘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.’
This exhibition, organised in association with The British Council, features over 35 major
paintings tracing the development of her work from the early 1960s to the present day and a
selection of the artists working drawings, sourced from the artist’s studio, providing a unique
insight into the artists working processes. Included also is a selection of the artist’s
celebrated early black and white paintings, which became famous for their powerful visual
sensations and which led to her inclusion in the seminal exhibition The Responsive Eye at
MOMA in 1965, as well as a number of works from the late 1960s which represent Riley’s
earliest exploration of colour.
Image: Bridget Riley Lagoon 1, 1997. Oil on linen 147 x 193 cm. Karsten Schubert, London. © 2004 Bridget Riley. All rights
reserved. Photograph: Prudence Cuming Associates, London.
Since the late 60s, when her first colour stripe paintings appeared, Riley has sought to
articulate an autonomous abstract language of colour and form to generate visual sensations
sometimes associated with natural phenomena. The impression of light in all its chromatic
variety and intensity, and a sense of subtle and sometime vibrant movement, are among the
complex visual experiences yielded by her paintings. By turns lyrical, powerful and serene,
her work is underpinned by her adherence to Delacroix’s observation: ‘the first merit of a
painting is to be a feast for the eye.’
A highlight of the MCA exhibition will be a site specific specially commissioned 16 metre long
by 4 metre high wall-drawing which sees her depart from paint and colour, rather weaving
complex and intricate compositions entirely using line.
Now in her early 70s, Riley occupies a singular position within the field of contemporary art –
a senior artist whose work, with each new development, generates fresh interest. Respected
both by her peers and by a younger generation of artists and students, she is admired for her
dedication to certain artistic ideals and also as an incisive communicator about her own work.
Recent major exhibitions of Riley’s work include a retrospective at Tate Britain (2003), the
Serpentine Gallery, London (1999), the Kunstverein für die Rhienlande und Westfalen,
Düsselfdorf (1999), and the Dia Centre for the Arts, New York (2000-01).
The Sydney exhibition will travel to City Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand in March 2005.
Bridget Riley
Museum of Contemporary Art
14 December 2004 – 6 March 2005
Admission: FREE
Major Sponsor
Supported by
This exhibition has been organized by the British Council
MEDIA ENQUIRIES: Christopher Snelling, MCA Publicity
ph: 9252 4033 email: [email protected]