Bridget Riley

Serpentine

1999

British painter Bridget Riley’s visually spectacular abstractions seem far removed from natural forms. Riley, however, claims she draws inspiration for her paintings and prints largely from nature, which she defines as a “dynamism of visual forces — an event rather than an appearance.”

Indeed, dynamism characterizes her work, which explores how simple geometric forms can create illusions of movement.

Born in 1931, Riley first came to worldwide attention in 1965, when she was included, alongside such other prominent figures as Victor Vasarely and Frank Stella, in the exhibition “The Responsive Eye” at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. The catalogue cover featured one of her paintings, Current (1964), composed of wavy black and white lines that seem to vibrate as they move from the top to the bottom of the canvas.

Since the 1970s, Riley has been experimenting with color, creating works like Nataraja (1993), made up of columns of brightly hued diagonal stripes that seem to pulse rhythmically. By instilling life, movement and energy into flat, geometric forms, she helped pioneer kinetic art.

Browse a collection of Bridget Riley's visionary art at 1stDibs.