BRIDGET RILEY, Pause, 1964
Exhibition poster
H 68 × W 59,4 cm (26,7× 23,3 in) 
Unframed

Kalkeriet is pleased to present, in collaboration with the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, the English artist Bridget Riley (b. 1931), with Pause (1964) created for Louisiana’s 2016 exhibition Eye Attack – Op Art and Kinetic Art 1950–1970. Riley, a key figure in Op Art, played a central role in the show.

Riley gained recognition in the early 1960s with her black-and-white paintings, influencing many artists who followed. Her works use simple elements—often just black and white—but their structured lines and forms create powerful optical effects.

Op Art, an international movement active from the 1950s to the 1970s, developed alongside other experimental art currents, especially in the 1960s.

Bridget Riley was born in Norwood, London, and studied at Goldsmiths’ College and the Royal College of Art. After early work in a semi-impressionist style and later pointillist landscapes, she developed her signature Op Art approach around 1960, exploring optical effects through precise lines and patterns.

She taught at several art schools, worked briefly in advertising, and by 1963–64 shifted fully to her artistic practice. Throughout the 1950s and 60s she exhibited widely, including Young Contemporaries (1955), The New Generation at Whitechapel (1964), and international Op Art shows.

Riley received major recognition early on, winning the AICA Critics Prize and a John Moores award in 1963, and the International Painting Prize at the 1968 Venice Biennale. Her solo exhibitions began at Gallery One in 1962, followed by shows in New York, Los Angeles, MoMA, the Venice Biennale, the Hayward Gallery, and museums across Europe.

Recommended frame: 0AK