Bridget Riley C.H. C.B.E. (British b.1931)

Bridget Riley C.H. C.B.E. (British b.1931)
Start [Riley 41]
2000
signed, dated, titled and numbered from the edition of 200 in pencil
screenprint in colours on wove
printed by Artizan Editions, Hove
sheet 47 x 49.3cm
unframed
ARR

(Quantity:1)

Literature: Bridget Riley: The Complete Prints 1962-2020, Thames & Hudson, 2020, BRS 41
Note:

Bridget Riley is one of Britain’s most influential and celebrated artists, renowned for her lifelong exploration of colour, form, and visual perception. Raised along the Cornish coast, Riley was deeply influenced by the ever-changing landscapes and shifting light of the sea and sky, an early immersion in natural form that would later inform her artistic language.

As a student, Riley was drawn to the Pointillists, who used abstract daubs of colour to build a complete composition. She adopted their attention to optical phenomena but forged a distinct path in the 1960s with her iconic black-and-white paintings, becoming a central figure in the Op Art movement.

Printmaking occupies a unique position within Riley’s practice. “Printmaking has been a very valuable addition to my working life as a painter,” she noted, “allowing me to extend particular trains of thought.” Riley is known to make preparatory works for paintings and often produces tangential images which are later revisited and developed as prints- not as reproductions, but standalone explorations whose complexity delineates that they can only be explored in the printed medium. While her paintings are often monumental, the scale of prints is attune to the viewer- we are invited to read the work on an intimate scale, with the composition tightly framed in the white border of the sheet.

Riley greatly relies on the medium of print for her interrogation of colour relationships. She has described her printed works as closer to conceptual art than her paintings, due to the experimental nature of image-reading she explores. Through print, she is able to isolate and reconfigure colour relationships, testing how subtle shifts in placement can transform the viewer’s experience.

Start is a seminal example of Riley’s mature practice, embodying her signature rhythmic abstraction and visual dynamism. Riley began experimenting with larger sections of colour in the late 1990s, and introduced a new element: the curve. Of particular significance, Start was the first print to feature the curvilinear form. The composition consists of vertical, undulating bands of rich blue, green, and yellow, which appear to shift and ripple like waves.

Riley harnesses the screenprint medium to deliver thick, opaque layers of colour with clarity and precision. This allows for sharp transitions between hues, intensifying the work’s optical effects, inviting the viewer’s eye to travel across the surface.