Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/1532989
Green, Blue, Red and Yellow, 1982 Signed 'Bridget Riley', dated '82', lower right; titled 'Green, Blue, Red and Yellow', lower left Gouache and pencil on paper 74.5 x 63 cm (29 ⅜ x 24 ¾ in) Provenance Pace Gallery, New York Private Collection, USA (purchased from the above) Osborne Samuel, London B R I D G E T R I L E Y ( B . 1 9 3 1 ) Robert Melville wrote that, 'no painter, dead or alive, has ever made us more aware of our eyes than Bridget Riley.' Since 1961, Bridget Rileyhas focused exclusively on geometric forms, such as lines, circles, curves, and squares. The resulting compositions are carefully balanced and actively engage the viewer, at times triggering sensations of vibration and movement. 'I don't begin with the appearance of form and colour as such, but with their spatial properties. That is the first step, and through building a coherent spatial order various and diverse sensations emerge. I try to sort these out and to assign them in their rightful places… If this 'placing' goes well the actual sensation becomes part of the formative fabric of the [work]. But until the whole is brought together, everything is uncertain and subject to change' (Bridget Riley cited in: Exh. Cat., London, Tate Modern, Bridget Riley, 2003, p. 25). This coherent spatial order or 'Op Art' as it was initially coined, was explored to great effect in the artist's earliest black-and- white paintings, which established the basis of her enduring formal vocabulary. In 1967, Riley introduced colour into her work, thus expanding the perceptual and optical possibilities of her compositions. In Green, Blue, Red and Yellow, 1982, Riley has included the ground colour of the paper itself as one the elements within the spatial order of the composition, creating an illusion of highlights within the rhythmic chords of colour. Riley is internationally acclaimed and has exhibited in many ground- breaking exhibitions: The New Generation, Whitechapel Gallery, London (1964); and Painting and Sculpture of a Decade 1954–1964, Tate Gallery, London (1964), The Responsive Eye, organized by William Seitz at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1965. In 1968, she represented Great Britain at the 34th Venice Biennale (along with Philip King), where she was the first living British painter to win the prestigious International Prize for Painting. Works by Bridget Riley are included in museums and public collections worldwide, including the Art Institute of Chicago; Arts Council, United Kingdom; British Council, United Kingdom; Buffalo AKG Art Museum, New York; Dallas Museum of Art; Dia Art Foundation, New York; Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Kunstmuseum Bern; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Siegen, Germany; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; Nationalgalerie, Berlin; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; and Tate, United Kingdom. 56