Bridget Riley
Looking for a statement piece? It certainly doesn’t get much bolder than Riley! Her prints are among the most desirable graphic works in British art.
The critic Robert Melville once claimed that ‘no painter, alive or dead, has ever made us more conscious of our eyes than Bridget Riley’. From her earliest days as an artist she has been fascinated by the ways in which we perceive visual phenomena. Over six decades she has explored the optical possibilities of abstract art, sequencing colour and geometric forms in combinations that seek to unpick the experience of seeing. An innovative use of spacial dynamics gives each image a palpable sense of movement that is particularly bewitching in her works on paper.
Riley's prints are an elegant distillation of the dedication and integrity that defines her work on canvas. The importance of colour relationships is central to both. None of her editions are reproductions of a painting - each exists as an independent work in its own right. As her career has progressed printmaking has come to assume an increasingly important role; she has said that it allows her to "extend particular trains of thought" suggested by the paintings. Prints have often pointed the way forward for her work, or suggested avenues that merit further exploration in earlier styles. Riley does not see her work as having a linear timeline, regarding it instead as a continuous whole in which any style might be revisited if necessary.
The intimacy of the relationship between painting and printmaking in Riley's oeuvre has ensured a vibrant market for her prints that has seen remarkable growth in recent years. She has created a little over 100 individual editions, all of which are very highly sought-after.
If you would like more information on investing in Riley, why not take a look at some of our most recent articles featuring her prints.
