The Power of Print
Sims Reed Gallery in St James’s hosts retrospective on Bridget Riley’s work
Article by Rupert Watkins
Last week, Riddle was in Bury Street to mark to launch of Bridget Riley’s retrospective exhibition. A graduate of both Goldsmith’s College and the Royal College of Art and heavily influenced by Jackson Pollock, Bridget has been at the forefront of optical art since the early 1960s.
From the earliest examples, her geometric works have had the boldness to disorientate and spatially challenge the viewer. Originally working in black and white, Bridget moved into colours in the late 1960s at the same time that she began experimenting with her stripe painting. By the 1980s, she was working exclusively in colour and was heavily influenced by travelling to Egypt at the start of that decade. The result was her “Egyptian palette”, and her painting used this slightly restrained spectrum of colour for some years. In recent years, the rigidity of her stripe paintings has evolved into a more flowing style with a fresh impetus on bold colour.
The gallery was lucky enough to have unrestricted access to Bridget’s complete collection, and consequently was careful to construct a balanced exhibition representing specific periods of her career. These range from the earliest works - black and white prints from the 1960s (such as her first print, Untitled (Based on Primitive Blaze), created in 1962, and Untitled (Based on Blaze), from 1964 - through to her Arcadia series of five prints produced between 2010 and 2013.
In many ways for this reviewer, her earliest works seem to be her strongest. There is a visceral sense of overload looking at these works. The sense of boldness and cleanness is highlighted by the stark black and white colouring – seen to good effect in Untitled (Fragment 3) from 1965. That sense of energy seems to appreciably drop when looking at Bridget’s grey based works from the late 1960s as she began her move to colour.
Her stripe prints – such as Untitled (elongated Triangle 5) – also leave me rather underwhelmed. There is not quite that feeling of being drawn into and questioned by the painting as in her earlier works. However, her later works such as Large Fragment (2006) and One Small Step (2009) show a boldness and fluidity which is arresting. The flowing lines of these works stress a sense of vibrancy and energy that harks back to her roots.
The exhibition runs until March 20th and is a selling one. Prices for works range between £2,500 and £45,000. In conjunction with this show, the Sims Reed stand at The Armory fair in New York (5-8 March) will showcase 10 examples of her work. Retrospectives are always interesting – it is fascinating to see the evolution of an artist over decades, dips and all. Anyone with an interest in op art should drop by as well as those, like this writer, who are interested in viewing works that are removed from their core area of interest. 
Enquiries: Sims Reed Gallery; (30 Bury Street, St James’s, London SW1Y 6AU/ +44 (0)207 930 5111 / [email protected]/ www.gallery.simsreed.com/exhibitions)