Bridget Riley

Considered one of the founders of Op Art, Bridget Riley was born in South London in 1931. She attended both Goldsmiths College (1946-1949) and the Royal College of Art (1949-1952), where she studied alongside Peter Blake and Frank Auerbach. Riley studied painting, experimenting with figurative works, impressionist landscapes, and pointillism before eventually discovering her own technique. Influenced by Georges Seurat, Victor Vasarely, and her own unique perspective, Riley created the first painting (The Kiss) in her signature style in 1961. This piece was monochromatic – Riley would not introduce color into her works until 1967. Riley’s works began to receive international acclaim when she was shown at the Museum of Modern Art in 1965 in “The Responsive Eye” alongside Victor Vasarely. Works from the 1960s have since become synonymous with the Op Art movement, characterized by geometric abstraction, such that 2D works appear to oscillate or vibrate.

Riley has received numerous awards and commendations; in 1968, she became the first British contemporary artist and the first woman to earn the prestigious International Prize for Painting at the Venice Biennale. Retrospectives of her works have been held at the Tate Britain (2003) and the Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris (2008), and individual works may be found in the permanent collections of museums across the globe.