Bridget Riley Donates Major New Work To Tate Britain’s Collection

Bridget Riley photo Artlyst ©

Bridget Riley’s Concerto I (2024) enters the Tate collection—a gift from the artist herself. The painting debuts alongside Fall (1963) in a focused display running through June 2026, tracing six decades of Riley’s optical alchemy.

Alex Farquharson,  Director of Tate Britain, said: “We are extremely grateful to Bridget Riley for her generosity in making such a significant gift to the nation. Riley’s work changed the landscape of abstract art, and Concerto I demonstrates how she continues to expand her practice while upholding a commitment to exploring energy and sensation through colour and form. We’re delighted to be able to show the painting in Tate Britain’s free collection displays over the next year, and I have no doubt it will soon become one of the best-loved works in the gallery.”

Bridget Riley, Concerto I, 2024. Tate, Presented by the artist 2025 © Bridget Riley 2025. All rights reserved.
Bridget Riley, Concerto I, 2024. Tate, Presented by the artist 2025 © Bridget Riley 2025. All rights reserved.

The donation’s significance: “Riley rewrote abstraction’s rules. At 93, she’s still uncovering new chromatic conversations.” Concerto I’s high-key palette vibrates with Post-Impressionist echoes, while its darker counterpart, Concerto II, plays a game of visual hide-and-seek. Nearby, the newly conserved Fall reminds viewers how Riley’s early black-and-white curves first short-circuited perceptions in 1963.

The conservation story intrigues: Tate scientists used GREENART’s plant-based cleaners to lift decades of grime from Fall’s delicate polyvinyl acetate surface without disturbing Riley’s precise calculus of curve and space. This marks the fourth Tate showing for Riley since 1973, her work now spanning 10 paintings, 25 studies, and works on paper in the collection.

Bridget Riley was born in 1931 in London, where she attended Goldsmiths College (1949-1952) and the Royal College of Art (1952-1955). She has previously exhibited with major institutions including the British Council, which toured an exhibition of her work to Hannover, Dusseldorf, Bern, Turin, Prague; the Hayward Gallery, London (1971 and 2019-2020); The Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2004–2005); Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (2008); The National Gallery, London (2010–2011); Art Institute of Chicago (2014–2015); Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, New Zealand (2017); Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art, Sakura, Japan (2018); and Scottish National Gallery (2019). Riley was awarded a CBE in 1974 and was appointed the Companion of Honour in 1991. She received an honorary Doctor of Letters (D.Litt) degree from Oxford University (1993) and Cambridge University (1995) and was awarded the Praemium Imperiale, Tokyo (2003); the Kaiser Ring of the City of Goslar, Germany (2009); and the Rubens Prize of the City of Siegen, Germany (2012). Her work is included in museum and public collections worldwide, including The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Tate, UK; National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; The Art Institute of Chicago; The National Gallery of Australia; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Kunstmuseum, den Haag; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam;  Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam; Nationalgalerie, Berlin.

Top Photo © Artlyst 2025

Bridget Riley: A Retrospective, on display through 7 June 2026 at Tate Britain.

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