Bridget Riley : Studies, 1984–1997
David Zwirner is pleased to present an exhibition of studies by Bridget Riley in The Upper Room in the London gallery. The artist has selected a group of works from the 1980s and 1990s that reflect the connection between the writings of Paul Klee (1879–1940) and her own understanding of abstract painting. As Riley has noted, “Paul Klee was of seminal importance to me because he showed me what abstraction meant.”1 Late works by the Bauhaus master will be on display concurrently on the ground and first floors.
On view in the exhibition will be working studies that show a movement from ‘stripes’ to ‘rhomboids.’ In the earliest of these works, Riley begins to cross her stripes with short diagonal elements, to move the eye around, across, and through the pictorial area, leading to the development of a new visual form, her ‘rhomboid’ paintings.
Image: Installation view, Bridget Riley, Studies: 1984–1997, David Zwirner, London, 2020
Below: Bridget Riley in her East London studio with cartoon scale pieces, early 1990s. Photo by Bill Warhurst. Courtesy the Bridget Riley Archive
Location
Dates
March 6—July 31, 2020
Private View
Thursday, March 5, 6–8 PM
Artist
Bridget Riley
Untitled [towards Broken Gaze], 1986
Pencil and gouache on graph paper
25 7/8 x 19 1/8 inches (65.8 x 48.7 cm)
Framed: 33 5/8 x 26 5/8 x 1 7/8 inches (85.4 x 67.7 x 5 cm)
Framed: 33 5/8 x 26 5/8 x 1 7/8 inches (85.4 x 67.7 x 5 cm)
Bridget Riley
Scale study for The Ivy Painting, 1994
Pencil and gouache on paper
15 5/8 x 13 7/8 inches (39.7 x 35.5 cm)
Bridget Riley
Study for Code of Manners, 1988
Pencil and gouache on paper
26 3/4 x 35 3/4 inches (67.9 x 90.7 cm)