Bridget Riley: Past into Present

David Zwirner presents paintings by renowned British artist Bridget Riley (b. 1931) at the gallery’s London location. The exhibition will feature new works from Riley’s current series Measure for Measure and Intervals. Viewed together, these works underscore both the consistency of Riley’s decades-long investigation of colour and form and her relentless experimentation with perception.

Riley’s formally taut, abstract compositions yield a singular sense of visual pleasure for the viewer, a notion derived as much from the artist’s formative encounters with old master and impressionist painting as from her early experiences with nature. Since 1961, she has focused exclusively on seemingly simple geometric forms, such as lines, circles, curves, and squares, arrayed across a surface—whether a canvas, a wall, or paper—according to an internal logic.

The resulting compositions actively engage the viewer, at times triggering sensations of vibration and movement. This sense of dynamism 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.

On the occasion of the exhibition, a new monograph on Riley is forthcoming from David Zwirner Books, featuring new scholarship on the artist by art historian Éric de Chassey. Riley has been represented by David Zwirner since 2014. This is her fifth solo exhibition with the gallery.