Chosen for  THERESPONSIVEI.COM  by Eva Zanardi  

New works by British op artist Bridget Riley at Galerie Max Hetzler Paris, from May 5th to  June 6th, 2015.

From the press release of the exhibition,

Bridget Riley‘s debut is marked by her famous optical black and white paintings, now synonymous with the 1960s. However, she later focused more specifically on the effects produced by the juxtaposition of colour, believing that “the challenge of colour had to be met on its own terms.”

The exhibition The Responsive Eye in 1965 at the Museum of Modern Art, New York underscored Bridget Riley’s optical calculation. Investigating sight, she developed illusions through optical calculation and with regularities of lines, surfaces, and colour combinations. As in Cézanne’s and Seurat’s paintings, the pictorial space serves for natural scientific studies. Riley examines the perception of nature by means of colour and forms.

Throughout her writings, Riley emphasises the importance of ‘looking’ when in front of paintings or in nature. Yet, as Adrian Searle points out: “You don’t so much look at her paintings as watch them […] The colours, the shapes, the negative spaces constantly shift before your eyes.” Another way to describe her work would be to state that everything is in motion, the «powers of nature» literally vibrating. Independent units of forms and colour break the borders and dissolve.

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