Bridget Riley

Bridget Riley b. 1934

P07104-P07110 Fragments 1965

Each print inscribed ‘Riley 65’ b.l.
Screenprints on plexiglass.
P07104 Fragment 1/7: 26½ x 33 (67.3 x 83.8).
P07105 Fragment 2/10: 28 x 27¼ (71.1 x 69.2).
P07106 Fragment 3/11: 24¾ x 31¿ (62.9 x 81).
P07107 Fragment 4/6: 28 x 27 (71.1 x 68.6).
P07108 Fragment 5/8: 24¾ x 32 (62.9 x 81.2).
P07109 Fragment 6/9: 29¼ x 29 (74.3 x73.7).
P07110 Fragment 7/5: 20 x 39 (50.8 x 99).
Purchased from the Rowan Gallery (Gytha Trust) 1970.
Lit: Maurice de Sausmarez, Bridget Riley, 1970, repr. (iv) pl.47, (vi) pl.II.

The title ‘Fragments’ is significant in that most of the prints consist of images which the artist arrived at through making studies for paintings. (She was at this period working almost exclusively in black and white). In selecting perspex as the ground Riley was clearly interested in setting a dense black image upon an intensely white and brilliant surface.

P07105 seems to relate to a group of paintings in which Riley was considering the tensions found in the tight and loose undulations of lines. The fragment is closest to ‘Fall’ 1963, but it also approximates to ‘Polarity’ 1964, ‘Crest’ 1964 and ‘Current’ 1964. In ‘Drawing Towards Painting—2’ (Arts Council touring exhibition 1967–8) Riley exhibited a study which was a preparatory work for both ‘Descending’1965–6, and for P07106. She wrote in the catalogue that in this study she was ‘keeping each alternative vertical straight—the others more in a series of related curves’.

This suite was published by the Robert Fraser Gallery and printed at the Kelpra Studio in an edition of 75.

Published in The Tate Gallery Report 1970–1972, London 1972.