Chosen for  THERESPONSIVEI.COM  by Eva Zanardi  

Bridget Riley’s “The Stripe Paintings 1961-2014” at David Zwirner’s London gallery was Op art seminal exhibition for 2014.

From the press release of the exhibition,

“Bridget Riley is undoubtedly one of the world’s most significant living artists and her influence on present and future generations cannot be underestimated,” says David Zwirner. “I am honoured to be able to show such a definitive selection of her stripe work in my London gallery.”

Riley’s dedication to the interaction of form and colour has led to a continued exploration of perception. From the early 1960s, she has used elementary shapes such as lines, circles, curves, and squares to create visual experiences that actively engage the viewer, at times triggering optical sensations of vibration and movement. Focusing on her recurrent use of stripes over the past fifty years, the exhibition demonstrates the visual variety she achieves by changes in colour, weight, rhythm, and density. Opening with an iconic black-and-white, horizontal stripe painting from 1961, the show includes her first stripe works in colour from later that decade, as well as a large two-panel diagonal stripe painting, Prairie (1971/2003), and vertical stripe works from the 1980s that demonstrate her “Egyptian” palette. The survey finishes with the artist’s newest body of horizontal stripes, including several paintings that have never been exhibited before.