MARCH 2016 - BRIDGET RILEY

BRAVE GEOMETRIES GO FROM ADVERTISING TO FINE ART

After a childhood disrupted by WWII, Riley tried out several different professions – she flourished in advertising in the London of the 1950s and 60s. 

However, an intuition for bold geometric statements left her restless, wanting to say more than she could for adverts. Influenced by seeing the shockingly abstract expressionist work of Jackson Pollock among others, she began placing her own geometries in an art context.

Her belief in the aesthetic power of what others might have dismissed as an optical illusion or a gimmick has been a great influence on us.