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Lot Essay
Revision of December 21 embodies Riley’s core philosophy: beneath simplicity lies complexity. Planes of blue, orange, peach, red, pink and teal interlock at rhythmic intervals to create a mesmerising chromatic symphony.
The present work was executed during a new phase in Riley’s oeuvre: the ‘Rhomboid’ or ‘Zig’ paintings. The rhomboid presented Riley with a shape that seemingly straddled two-dimensionality and three-dimensionality, producing a feeling of motion that broke away from her iconic ‘Stripes’ compositions of the early 80s. These divergent compositions are ‘something like a coherent fabric of colour which advances and recedes in planes’, Riley notes. The rhomboids ‘assume the potentiality of planes, being separated components which can hold different colours, which in turn can take up different positions in pictorial depth’ (‘Bridget Riley in Conversation with Michael Harrison’, in Bridget Riley: Colour, Stripes, Planes and Curves, exhibition catalogue, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, 2011, pp. 12, 16). Riley utilises the rhomboid to introduce an element of depth to the canvas, a significant development in her career-long exploration of opticality.
Here, the carefully constructed shapes provoke associations with the nebulous light of a developing winter sunrise. Riley’s work is informed by her academic interest in art history, drawing particular inspiration from the work of Claude Monet and his interaction with the natural landscape. Despite the clear juxtaposition between the abstract and the figurative subjects, a definitive visual parallel can be drawn between the shimmering undulations of colour and form seen in Monet’s Nymphéas series and those in the present work.
The present work was executed during a new phase in Riley’s oeuvre: the ‘Rhomboid’ or ‘Zig’ paintings. The rhomboid presented Riley with a shape that seemingly straddled two-dimensionality and three-dimensionality, producing a feeling of motion that broke away from her iconic ‘Stripes’ compositions of the early 80s. These divergent compositions are ‘something like a coherent fabric of colour which advances and recedes in planes’, Riley notes. The rhomboids ‘assume the potentiality of planes, being separated components which can hold different colours, which in turn can take up different positions in pictorial depth’ (‘Bridget Riley in Conversation with Michael Harrison’, in Bridget Riley: Colour, Stripes, Planes and Curves, exhibition catalogue, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, 2011, pp. 12, 16). Riley utilises the rhomboid to introduce an element of depth to the canvas, a significant development in her career-long exploration of opticality.
Here, the carefully constructed shapes provoke associations with the nebulous light of a developing winter sunrise. Riley’s work is informed by her academic interest in art history, drawing particular inspiration from the work of Claude Monet and his interaction with the natural landscape. Despite the clear juxtaposition between the abstract and the figurative subjects, a definitive visual parallel can be drawn between the shimmering undulations of colour and form seen in Monet’s Nymphéas series and those in the present work.