Bridget Riley: Arcadia

For 50 years Bridget Riley has been regarded as Britain's most important abstract painter, renowned for her large abstract paintings, with their complex, repetitive geometric shapes and undulating linear patterns. Given the graphic nature of these works, it is fascinating to discover that Riley sees her decidedly modern paintings as following in an Old Master pictorial tradition. This affinity stems from her lifelong passion for paintings in the National Gallery, London, with which she has a long association: first as a young student and copyist and later as a Trustee. In 1989 Riley was honoured with an exhibition, 'The Artist's Eye'. "Bridget Riley: Arcadia" will mark the artist's long engagement with the National Gallery. Colin Wiggins explains with great clarity and enthusiasm how the fluid lines of Renaissance and Baroque paintings, together with their palette of ochres, salmon, greens and light blues translate into the abstracted shapes that appear in Riley's paintings. Marla Prather looks at how the techniques and methods of modern masters such as Cezanne, Seurat and Matisse also act as an important influence in her paintings.
This catalogue and DVD accompany the National Gallery exhibition Bridget Riley: Arcadia which opens on 16 November 2010.