Page 22 - Studio International - July 1966

Bridget Riley : drawing for painting

by Gene Baro

Bridget Riley's paintings are visual events. They are not Her austere means and her method that seems to rely
images; they are not symbols; they are actions; and the upon mechanical measure prove unconfining after all.
artistic intention is that they offer a visual equivalent to Her paintings, far from being remote and impersonal
psycho-physical states. The ideal response to these abstractions, have emotional weight; they express her
paintings would perhaps be unconscious—a sense of and engage us. Within the context of a unified technical
inexplicable identification with their inner dynamics. attack, they register a great variety of moods. Indivi-
To a large degree, this is an art of autonomous visual dually, they are intellectually subtle, tenderly lyrical,
orders, co-operating in opposition or uneasily balanced grandly dramatic, intense and violent—but they come
in antagonism, an art of disturbed yet dominating pat- out of the same sort of discreet formulation. They share
terns. The optical effect we sometimes experience in this in an uncompromising and uncompromised attitude
work is a by-product of contending systems of progres- towards art. Their unified technique is nothing less than
sion, periodicity, and variation, or of the arbitrary a way of seeing.
schematizing of one system of energy in terms of an- The impact of these paintings is immediate and com-
other—for instance, the expression of a circle as an en- prehensive. They provoke not a response but a reaction,
larging series of acute angles. a sharp, involuntary involvement that is bodily rather
Miss Riley confines herself to a fundamental vocabu- than intellectual. Later, perhaps ultimately, we become
lary — to standard shapes, black and white, geometric concerned with their means. We want to know how these
motifs, simple bands, a range of tones from cold to warm. paintings are made—how they are made imaginatively.
Her paintings are a demonstration of qualified structure, As statements, they have the force of perfect aptness.
of structure as process. The element conspicuously absent Their technical economy and visual integration almost
from her work is, of course, colour; but her neglect of it is persuades us that they came into being spontaneously.
not an evasion. Colour is either the whole building Reflection corrects this impression. We realize that the
principle in painting or it is a modifier of form otherwise paintings are a culmination. They are the products of
arrived at. For the moment, both functions are irrele- profound forethought, experimentation, and rigorous
vant to her conceptions. She works by another building self-criticism.
code, one that does not allow decoration to pass for In fact, Bridget Riley's paintings originate in her
structure. drawings and are wholly dependent upon them. The

Study for shift 1963
Ink and pencil
15+ x 22 in.
Robert Fraser Gallery