Bridget Riley

Bridget Riley

Bridget Riley - Galerie Max Hetzler
Related Links

Bridget Riley may be best known for her analysis of optical phenomena in geometrical black and white paintings that define her starting point and made her one of the central figures in the Op art movement of the 60’s. In the stunning colour work that followed, she continued her exploration of perception through the relationship between structure and colour, always causing disorientation to the viewer’s eye, as her paintings seem to flicker, to pulsate and to convey an internal life. Bridget Riley, continuously carrying out new experiments, created her first wall painting in 2007. Besides her artistic practice, her theoretical writings had a considerable influence on a younger generation of artists.

"To follow very closely Riley’s work is to see that sameness is courted – because repetition is crucial to an artistic practice – but sameness is also avoided, because it is in the character of a true artistic practice to create change. So, to follow her work is to see that the continuity of artistic identity is asserted, not despite change, but because of change: because change is the very means of achieving continuity. [...] The surprise of the first encounter with one of her paintings is owing to an astonishment that an inanimate object has apparently come to life and – more than that – is in communion with the viewer. The viewer’s surprise is, we recognise, is a self-created surprise. Perception is the medium just as much as is the canvas and the paint – more so, in that a painting, the artist acknowledges, ‘only comes to life when looked at from a certain distance’. In a way, it doesn’t exist factually at all; only in the viewer’s perception."

John Elderfield, Creating a way of looking in Bridget Riley: Die Streifenbilder / The Stripe Paintings 1961-2012, Galerie Max Hetzler, Holzwarth Publications and Ridinghouse, 2013

Image: Arcadia 3 (Wall Painting), 2009, graphite and acrylic paint on plaster wall, 172,2 x 373,7 cm

Solo Exhibitions

BRIDGET RILEY - Galerie Max Hetzler

Measure for Measure

New Disc Paintings

57, rue du Temple, Paris

18 October – 25 November 2017
Bridget Riley - Galerie Max Hetzler

Bridget Riley

57, rue du Temple, Paris

5 May – 6 June 2015
Bridget Riley - Galerie Max Hetzler

Die Streifenbilder / The Stripe Paintings 1961–2012

(catalogue)

Oudenarder Straße 16-20, Berlin-Wedding

8 June – 18 July 2013
Bridget Riley - Galerie Max Hetzler

Paintings and Related Work 1983 – 2010 (catalogue)

Oudenarder Straße 16-20, Berlin-Wedding

12 February – 16 April 2011
Bridget Riley - Galerie Max Hetzler

Circles Colour StructureStudies 1970/71

Zimmerstraße 90/91, Berlin-Mitte

20 June – 25 July 2009
Bridget Riley - Galerie Max Hetzler

Bridget Riley

in cooperation with Galerie Aurel Scheibler, Berlin
(catalogue)

Zimmerstraße 90/91, Berlin-Mitte

15 September – 27 October 2007

Group Exhibitions

Then and Now - Galerie Max Hetzler

Then and Now

Anthony Caro, Barbara Hepworth, Bridget Riley, Edmund de Waal, Rebecca Warren

Bleibtreustraße 45, Berlin

6 March – 19 April 2014
REMEMBER EVERYTHING - Galerie Max Hetzler

REMEMBER EVERYTHING

40 Years Galerie Max Hetzler
Darren Almond, Glenn Brown, André Butzer, Rineke Dijkstra, Günther Förg, Mona Hatoum, Jeff Koons, Vera Lutter, Marepe, Beatriz Milhazes, Ernesto Neto, Frank Nitsche, Albert Oehlen, Yves Oppenheim, Richard Phillips, Michael Raedecker, Bridget Riley, Thomas Struth, Rebecca Warren, Christopher Wool, Toby Ziegler
(catalogue)

Oudenarder Straße 16-20, Berlin-Wedding

10 November – 21 December 2013

Selected Institutional Exhibitions

BRIDGET RILEY

Paintings from the 1960s to the Present

Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art, Sakura

14 April – 26 August 2018
BRIDGET RILEY

BRIDGET RILEY

The Chinati Foundation, Marfa

6 October 2017 - 2019
Bridget Riley

Dance

Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, The Hague

Permanent Installation
BRIDGET RILEY

Paintings, 1963-2015

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh

15 April 2016 – 16 April 2017
Bridget Riley

Venice and Beyond, Paintings 1967-1972

Graves Gallery, Sheffield

18 February – 25 June 2016
Bridget Riley

The Curve Paintings 1961-2014

De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill

13 June – 6 September 2015
Bridget Riley

Bridget Riley

The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

11 November 2014 – 8 March 2015
Bridget Riley

Bridget Riley

Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Siegen

1 July – 11 November 2012
Bridget Riley - Kaiserringträgerin der Stadt Goslar

Bridget Riley - Kaiserringträgerin der Stadt Goslar

Mönchehaus Museum, Goslar

3 October 2009 – 31 January 2010

Biography

Show Vita
Show Selected Bibliography

Publications

Measure for Measure. New Disc Paintings - Galerie Max Hetzler

Measure for Measure. New Disc Paintings

Bridget Riley

Galerie Max Hetzler Berlin | Paris / Holzwarth Publications, Berlin 2018
With an essay by Éric de Chassey

€ 35.00

Leaf through book
Bridget Riley - Galerie Max Hetzler

Bridget Riley

Galerie Max Hetzler Berlin | Paris / Holzwarth Publications, Berlin 2015
With a text by Éric de Chassey

Leaf through book
THEN AND NOW - Galerie Max Hetzler

THEN AND NOW

Anthony Caro, Barbara Hepworth, Bridget Riley, Edmund de Waal, Rebecca Warren

Galerie Max Hetzler Berlin | Paris 2014
With a text by Jurriaan Benschop

€ 15.00

Leaf through book
REMEMBER EVERYTHING - Galerie Max Hetzler

REMEMBER EVERYTHING

Darren Almond, Glenn Brown, André Butzer, Rineke Dijkstra, Günther Förg, Mona Hatoum, Jeff Koons, Vera Lutter, Marepe, Beatriz Milhazes, Ernesto Neto, Frank Nitsche, Albert Oehlen, Yves Oppenheim, Richard Phillips, Michael Raedecker, Bridget Riley, Thomas Struth, Rebecca Warren, Christopher Wool, Toby Ziegler

Galerie Max Hetzler / Holzwarth Publications / Ridinghouse, Berlin and London 2014
With texts by Julie Sylvester and Jean-Marie Gallais
Edited by Jean-Marie Gallais

€ 45.00

Leaf through book
Die Streifenbilder / The Stripe Paintings 1961–2012 - Galerie Max Hetzler

Die Streifenbilder / The Stripe Paintings 1961–2012

Bridget Riley

Galerie Max Hetzler / Holzwarth Publications / Ridinghouse, Berlin and London 2013
With texts by John Elderfield, Paul Moorhouse and Robert Kudielka

€ 35.00

Paintings and Related Work 1983–2010 - Galerie Max Hetzler

Paintings and Related Work 1983–2010

Bridget Riley

Galerie Max Hetzler / Holzwarth Publications / Ridinghouse, 2011
With texts by Bridget Riley, Robert Kudielka and a conversation between Bridget Riley and Lynne Cooke

Bridget Riley - Galerie Max Hetzler

Bridget Riley

Galerie Max Hetzler / Galerie Aurel Scheibler, Berlin 2007
With a text by Robert Kudielka

Selected Press

Artlyst November 2018

The Japan Times June 2018

The Guardian 2015

Berliner Zeitung 2013

Süddeutsche Zeitung 2012

Flash Art 2011

Die Zeit 2011

The Wall Street Journal 2010

News

Bridget Riley

Bridget Riley (solo show)
The Hayward Gallery, London
23 October 2019 - 26 January 2020

In October 2019, Hayward Gallery will host a major retrospective exhibition devoted to the work of celebrated British artist Bridget Riley.

Organised by the National Galleries of Scotland in partnership with Hayward Gallery and in close collaboration with the artist, this comprehensive ...
Bridget Riley

Bridget Riley

Bridget Riley (solo show)
Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh
15 June - 22 September 2019

For more than 60 years, Bridget Riley has created dazzling and compelling abstract paintings which explore the fundamental nature of perception. Through her observations of the natural world, her experience of looking at the work of other artists, and through her own experimentation, Riley has made ...
Bridget Riley

Bridget Riley

Bridget Riley (opening talk)
Hawthornden Lecture Theatre, Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh
15 June, 12 - 1pm

To coincide with the opening of the Bridget Riley retrospective exhibition, Éric de Chassey, Directeur Général, Institut national d'histoire de l'art, Paris will consider at the celebrated artist's work.

Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh
Bridget Riley

Bridget Riley

Vertigo. Op Art and a History of Deception 1520 - 1970 (group show)
mumok, Vienna
25 May - 20 October 2019

Of all the pioneering art movements of the 1960s, Op art and kinetic art seem to have been accorded the least recognition. Often they were depreciatingly seen as too spectacular and thus superficial. Wrongly so, since Op art and kinetic art sharpen our awareness of the ambiguous nature of reality. ...
Bridget Riley

Bridget Riley

Interaction of color and form. Josef Albers im Dialog mit Werken von Larry Bell, Ólafur Elíasson und Bridget Riley (group show)
UAA Ungers Archive for Architectural Research, Cologne
8 April - 17 May 2019

On the occasion of the celebration of 100 years Bauhaus, the UAA Ungers Archive for Architectural Research is presenting an exhibition on the superordinate theme of perception and its critical analysis, based on the research by Josef Albers in his legendary publication "Interaction of Color" from ...
Bridget Riley

Bridget Riley, Thomas Struth et al.

The Lie of the Land (group show)
MK Gallery, Milton Keynes
16 March - 26 May 2019

Through a playful and provocative display The Lie of the Land charts how British landscape was radically transformed by changes in free time and leisure activities since hunting and shooting, the recreations of the aristocracy, were enjoyed on the rolling hills of their private estates. In part, ...

Bridget Riley

On Paper (group show)
Thelma Hulbert Gallery, Devon
23 February - 18 May 2019

On Paper, from the Arts Council Collection, showcases the work of acclaimed 20th-century and contemporary artists who work with paper. Looking beyond the mark-making of drawing to consider the material itself, the exhibition explores how artists have used paper as the focus of their work in creative ...

Bridget Riley

Messengers (wall painting)
The National Gallery, London
From 17 January 2019

See Messengers, a new large-scale wall painting by Bridget Riley: one of the most important artists of her generation.

The title, Messengers, is inspired by a phrase Constable used when referring to clouds, and might also be an allusion to the numerous angels, bearers of news, that we see in ...
Bridget Riley

Bridget Riley

Bridget Riley (solo show)
The Chinati Foundation, Marfa
6 October 2017 - 2019

In October 2017 the Chinati Foundation will inaugurate a large new multicolored wall painting by Bridget Riley. The artwork has been conceived specifically for the museum’s special exhibition building and will encompass the entire U-shaped enclosure. The work will debut during Chinati Weekend, ...
Bridget Riley