Bridget Riley Essay

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Bridget Riley

Bridget Riley was born on April 24th 1931 in Norwood, London. Riley is and English painter who is one of the foremost proponents of optical art. Riley was born in London and spent her childhood in Cornwall and Lincolnshire. She was educated at Cheltenham Ladies’ College. She studied art first at Goldsmiths College from 1949 until 1952, and later at the Royal College of Art from 1952 until 1955. Her early work was figurative with a semi-impressionist style.
Around 1960 she began to develop her signature Op Art style consisting of black and white geometric patterns that explore the dynamism of sight and produce a disorienting effect on the eye.In 1968 Riley, with artists Peter Sedgley and Peter Townsend, created the artists' organization SPACE (Space Provision Artistic Cultural and Educational), with the goal of providing artists large and affordable studio space.
Bridget Riley's work can be divided into several stages, each stage a progression toward her vibrant and free use of color. Her black and white period, which roughly occurred between 1961 and 1966, is where she achieved national recognition. It is also in the black and white period where Riley was classified in the op-art movement of the 1960s (Riley to this day does not like the classification, she repeatedly states that she has never studied optics). The paintings from the black and white period are composed of geometric shapes, varying in widths, creating an optical effect on the viewer.
"Blaze 1" (1962) is an example of her work from this period. Composed of a depth of zigzags in a circular shape, the painting radiates intense optical energy. Many critics during this period cite that her paintings attack the viewer. Many of Riley's designs from this period, because of their visual intensity and popularity, were plagiarized and reproduced commercially on billboards, magazines, and

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