{"id":6634,"date":"2025-03-20T10:58:21","date_gmt":"2025-03-20T14:58:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/creatureandcreator.ca\/?p=6634"},"modified":"2025-03-20T12:55:50","modified_gmt":"2025-03-20T16:55:50","slug":"bridget-riley-perceptual-abstraction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/creatureandcreator.ca\/?p=6634","title":{"rendered":"Bridget Riley: Perceptual Abstraction"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"image_pdf\"<\/a>\"image_print\"<\/a><\/div>\n

Bridget Riley (1931-\u00a0 ) came to fame in the early 1960s with her striking black-and-white abstract paintings, which were paintings were included in an important exhibition organized by the Museum of Modern Art in New York, entitled The Responsive Eye<\/em> (1965-66). After her first success, she moved on to colored abstract paintings and prints that infuse the viewer with a sense of movement.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Beginnings<\/strong><\/p>\n

Riley studied art at Goldsmith\u2019s College and the Royal College of Art, but found no clear inspiration until she attended a summer school organized by Harry Thubron and Maurice de Sausmarez in 1959. She became intrigued by the pointillism of Georges Seurat, and made a careful copy of his 1887 painting Le Pont de Courbevoie <\/em>in order to understand the relations between the colors (Spicer, 2015):<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Maurice de Sausmarez<\/strong><\/p>\n

De Sausmarez, a charismatic teacher of art and design, was particularly intrigued by the way in which force and motion could be portrayed graphically. His teachings were presented in his 1964 book Basic Design: The Dynamics of Visual Form<\/em>. In his introduction to the book (p 16) he summarizes the goal of his teaching:<\/p>\n

to examine the rudimentary forces brought into being through graphic marks, dimensional relationships, juxtaposed colours, etc, leaving to the individual’s talent and temperament the terms in which he expresses himself. It is the counterpart to mastering the elementary signs of a language, formation and relationship to create coherences, but, by comparison, the primary forces operating in the act of looking provide us with prodigious subtlety and variety Furthermore visual coherence is more related to our neural and psycho-physiological being than to our processes of intellection. It is for this reason that we cannot describe or define this coherence, we can only acknowledge it when it is experienced through feeling. Optical forces are continuously operative, forces of attraction and repulsion, of expansion and contraction according to the situation of shapes and colours presented to our eyes. As we have already noted, sight is more than the mere optical stimulation of the retina by haphazard light rays, which the mind concurrently organizes into spatial units. It is virtually impossible to perceive units isolated from and unaffected by the context in which they appear. Relationship is inescapable and this makes the act of looking a dynamic experience.<\/p>\n

In 1959 he and Riley began an affair, travelling together to Portugal and later to Italy. In Italy they attended an exhibition of Italian Futurism at the Venice Biennale. The following is a painting by Giacomo Balla: Abstract: Speed + Sound <\/em> (1913):<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In his biography of her early life, Moorhouse (2019, pp 200-201) describes how Riley came to her ideas about dynamism in black and white in Venice in 1960<\/p>\n

Taking a respite from the day’s summer heat, the two stopped at a caf\u00e9 and lingered at their table. Idling in this way, Bridget was greatly taken by the tessellated pattern of black-and-white floor tiles that lay around them. With its abutting squares the rigid geometry of the design caught her eye and she surveyed the arrangement with a half-conscious pleasure. Then, as sometimes happens, without warning the sky quickly became overcast and a torrential downpour ensued. With growing fascination, she watched as the exposed floor pattern was fractured by the beating rain. Consumed by spreading pools of water, the chequerboard design gradually dissolved, the lines and squares dancing in chaotic movement. Transfixed, she observed a firm structure as it became convulsed and then finally trans-formed into its opposite: a pliable, plastic surface that undulated and writhed. Within minutes the mirage had run its course. The sky cleared and, with the return of intense sunlight, the ground dried and the linear structure reappeared. Insignificant in itself, the spectacle had existed only briefly. Yet at some deeper level this optical event made a lasting impression.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ruth Padel<\/strong><\/p>\n

The poet Ruth Padel described Riley\u2019s experiences in Venice in 1960 in a long poem entitled Butterfly Landing on a Painting by Bridget Riley.<\/em> The poem<\/a>, published in Voodoo Shop<\/em> (2002, pp 43-51), was triggered by a large swallowtail butterfly alighting near her: an \u201cunfolded scrap of animate origami.\u201d The butterfly evoked memories of her recently deceased father, who had been an amateur lepidopterist. Its black and white stipes also brought to mind the early paintings of Bridget Riley. She imagined Riley and de Sausmarez in Venice in 1960 in a section of the poem entitled Rain<\/em>. The text of the poem is followed by its recitation by the poet. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

A sudden squall of rain in the piazza. It\u2019s 1960. Venice.
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The dark girl, knocking back Camparis with her lover
(Old enough to be her dad; the centre of everything she is),
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Has won a prize. She\u2019s twenty-nine, all go,
And flirting with Hard Edge
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Abstractionism. He thinks she\u2019s difficult, and young.
They\u2019re splitting up. She doesn\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

Together, they\u2019ve explored the Futurists.
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They tried to visit Gino Severini,
Futurism\u2019s founder, but he won\u2019t be seen, he\u2019s
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ill. Now she\u2019s drawing on the table, arguing.
\u2018Shapes that flow
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Through space destroy the world as you and I
Perceive it.\u2019 But her voice is shrill.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s playing teacher, lecturing on
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The inner life of colour. She\u2019s saying, too
Loud and wrong, somehow,
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That losing certainty of line could change
Things for a painter, rearrange him, set him free
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (She still says \u2018he\u2019), \u2018or whisk
Him off to places he never dreamed he\u2019d see.\u2019<\/p>\n

You can hear how young \u2014 you want to fold her in
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Your arms, make her slow down \u2014
But you love the flinging out: the risk.
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 More Camparis. He forgives
The arguing for now; until they\u2019re home.
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What she\u2019s really up to
Is watching how rain turns<\/p>\n

All this Renaissance paving \u2014 midnight geometry
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Of star and parallelogram, black granite set
rnilkstone from the cold Carrara ridge \u2014
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 To a swirl of snake-skin
Runnels. Chaos physics.
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In herself, only half-aware, she\u2019s marvelling
How a thing that seemed so certain<\/p>\n

Can in a flash, a moment, fall to bits. She\u2019s no idea
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This will change the way we see.
Rain stops \u2014 the flagstones dry \u2014 that pristine, seven-
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Point clarity comes back. But her eyes have taken in
How pattern, safe curtain
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Of the given world, can buckle, go
Molten on you, disappear.<\/p>\n

Afterwards, she\u2019ll see it everywhere, a witchy spell
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 On pell-mell dying leaves
Or zebra crossings over Russell Square,
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And sloping glass of a Ford Popular\u2019s rear window
Where it slippingly reflects
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The dark-pale-dark of bedrooms in Imperial Hotel.
It\u2019ll stay with her, unnoticed, when he\u2019s left.<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/creatureandcreator.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/padel_rain_complete.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The next section of Padel\u2019s poem is entitled Kiss<\/em>:<\/p>\n

He’s gone. She can’t believe it, can’t go on.
She’s going to give up painting. So she paints
Her final canvas, total-turn-off
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Black. One long
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Obsidian goodbye.
A charcoal-burner’s Smirnoff,
The mirror of Loch Ness
Reflecting the monster back to its own eye.<\/p>\n

But something’s wrong. Those mad
Black-body particles don’t sing
Her story of despair, the steel and
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Garnet spindle
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Of the storm.
This black has everything its own sweet way,
Where’s the I’d-like-to-kill-you
Conflict? Try once more, but this time add<\/p>\n

A curve to all that straight. And opposition \u2014
White. She paints black first. A grindstone belly
Hammering a smaller shape
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Beneath a snake
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Of in-betweening light.
\u2018I feel like this. I hope that you do, too,
Black crater. Screw you. Kiss.\u2019<\/p>\n

And sees a voodoo flicker, where two worlds nearly touch
And miss. That flash, where white
Lets black get close, that dagger of not-quite contact,
Catspaw panic, quiver on the wheat
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Field before thunder \u2014
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There. That’s it.
That’s her own self, in paint,
Splitting what she was from what she is.
As if everything that separates, unites.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/creatureandcreator.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/padel_kiss_complete.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The painting Kiss<\/em> (1961) shows two large black shapes, one straight, one curved, almost coming together. The point of their almost contact is scintillating.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Riley\u2019s affair with de Sausmarez came to an end, but the two remained friends. De Sausmarez wrote the text for the first monograph on Bridget Riley\u2019s work, published in 1970, just after his death. He remarked about the painting Kiss<\/em> (de Sausmarez, 1970, p 16):<\/p>\n

the \u2018blink\u2019 or \u2018flash\u2019 in the white area where the two massive, sensuous, black shapes nearly touch, and the fractional \u2018together and apart\u2019 movement of the straight and curved dividing lines. \u00a0<\/p>\n

A second painting from 1961 awas entitled Movement in Squares<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Optical Art<\/strong><\/p>\n

Riley\u2019s paintings are often considered as representative of Op<\/em> or Optical Art<\/em>. Op Art<\/p>\n

relies for its effect on certain physiological processes in the eye and brain which we are not normally aware of either in ordinary vision or in looking at other works of art. (Barrett, 1971, p 9)<\/p>\n

Typically composed of black-and-white or high contrast colors, the pictures can provide striking sensations of motion, depth, and color. Viktor Vasarely (1906-1997) was one of the early leaders of this field. Some have attributed Op Art effects to visual illusions, although a better term might be simply visual \u201cphenomena\u201d (Wade, 1978), since it is sometimes difficult to determine what is real and what is an illusion. De Sausmarez (1970, p 16) commented on Riley\u2019s understanding:<\/p>\n

For Bridget Riley there is no such thing as optical illusion since this would imply the censorship of visual experience by factual measurement. Cobalt blue on a white ground is not the same colour as cobalt blue on a black ground despite the fact that in both instances the pigment may have been squeezed from the same tube labelled \u2018cobalt blue.\u2019 For Riley what is visually experienced is the optical reality<\/em>. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Riley considers the term \u201cperceptual abstraction\u201d to be the best way of characterizing her art (Riley et al 2022).<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Movement<\/strong><\/p>\n

Riley soon began to use curves to present contrasts and motion. The following is Arrest 2<\/em> (1965):<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A more complex color experience is found in Drift 1<\/em> (1966):<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

De Sausmarez (1970, p 92) remarked<\/p>\n

A cold tone remains constant over the whole area, while from left to right a warm sequence moving at two rates gives rise to warm\/cold contrast, gradually changing to light\/dark contrast in the central area and moving away again into warm\/cold contrast. Diagonal movements at two different speeds power-fully influence the curving bands flowing from top to bottom. The climax of the tonal sequence and the climax of the curve movements are at variance.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Color and Movement<\/strong><\/p>\n

Over the years, Riley began to concentrate more on the relations between colors, in keeping with her initial interest in the paintings of Seurat. The following is New Day<\/em> (1988):<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Mor recently she has attempted to show movement through the shapes of colors, in keeping with the work of the Futurists. Below is Arcadia 3 <\/em>(2011):<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n

We can end with some photographs of Riley demonstrating the movement in her painting After Rajasthan<\/em>, taken by Horst Kurschat in 2013 (MacRitchie et al., 2020, p 22-3)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

References<\/strong><\/p>\n

Barrett, C. (1971). An introduction to optical art.<\/em> Studio Vista.<\/p>\n

de Sausmarez, M. (1964). Basic design: the dynamics of visual form<\/em>. Reinhold.<\/p>\n

de Sausmarez, M. (1970). Bridget Riley.<\/em> Studio Vista.<\/p>\n

MacRitchie, L., Hartley, C., Kudielka, R., Tommasini, A., Gubay, R. (2020). Bridget Riley: the complete prints 1962-2020.<\/em> (Fifth revised and expanded edition. Thames and Hudson.<\/p>\n

Moorhouse, P. (2019). Bridget Riley: a very, very person, the early years. <\/em>Ridinghouse.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Moorhouse, P. (2003). Bridget Riley<\/em>. Tate Gallery<\/p>\n

Padel, R. (2002). Voodoo shop<\/em>. Chatto & Windus.<\/p>\n

Riley, B. (2019). Bridget Riley: dialogues on art<\/em> (3rd<\/sup> edition.). Bridget Riley Art Foundation.<\/p>\n

Riley, B. (edited by R. Kudielka, 2019). The eye\u2019s mind: Bridget Riley, collected writings 1965-2019<\/em> (3rd edition.). Bridget Riley Art Foundation.<\/p>\n

Riley, B., Stratton, R., & Ohadi-Hamadani, M. (2022). Bridget Riley: Perceptual Abstraction<\/em><\/a>.<\/em> Yale Center for British Art.<\/p>\n

Schiff, R., & Kudielka, R. (2016). Bridget Riley: works 1981-2015.<\/em> David Zwirner Books.<\/p>\n

Spicer, E. (2015). Bridget Riley: Learning From Seurat<\/a>. Studio International<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Wade, N. J. (1978) Op art and visual perception. Perception<\/em> 7, 21-46.<\/p>\n

Wade, N. J. (2003). Movements in art: From Rosso to Riley. Perception<\/em>, 32<\/em>(9), 1029\u20131036.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bridget Riley (1931-\u00a0 ) came to fame in the early 1960s with her striking black-and-white abstract paintings, which were paintings were included in an important exhibition organized by the Museum of Modern Art in New York, entitled The Responsive Eye (1965-66). After her first success,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6631,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":97,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,457,13,5,12],"tags":[947,946,948,951,941,952,944,950,942,949,943,945],"class_list":["post-6634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art","category-language","category-literature","category-poetry","category-psychology","tag-futurism","tag-georges-seurat","tag-giacomo-balla","tag-kiss","tag-maurice-de-sausmarez","tag-movement-in-squares","tag-op-art","tag-perceptual-abstraction","tag-ruth-padel","tag-the-responsive-eye","tag-venice","tag-victor-vasarely"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/creatureandcreator.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/creatureandcreator.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/creatureandcreator.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/creatureandcreator.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/creatureandcreator.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6634"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/creatureandcreator.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6640,"href":"https:\/\/creatureandcreator.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6634\/revisions\/6640"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/creatureandcreator.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/creatureandcreator.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/creatureandcreator.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/creatureandcreator.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}