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Blaze 3, 1963 [BR 738] Acrylic on board 37 1/4” x 37 1/4” Private Collection BRIDGET RILEY: PAINTINGS AND WORKS ON PAPER, 1963-2005
SEPTEMBER 3 THROUGH OCTOBER 30, 2005

<< Blaze 3, 1963 | Acrylic on board | 37 1/4” x 37 1/4” | Private Collection

This exhibition encompasses forty years of uncompromising and remarkable innovation, exploring Bridget Riley’s characteristic
and distinctive optically vibrant work. Her last exhibition in North America was at the Dia Center, New York, in 2000.

Riley’s work is celebrated for its ability to engage the viewer’s sensations and perceptions, producing visual experiences that
are complex and challenging, subtle and arresting. Her paintings employ a simple vocabulary of colors and abstract shapes to generate sensations of movement, light and space. This exhibition traces the development of Riley’s work from the early 1960s to the present day.

Ms. Riley will be at Cranbrook on Friday evening, September 23. In addition to joining us at Cranbrook for the opening, Ms. Riley will present a rare public lecture on Saturday, September 24 at 4:00 p.m.
EXHIBITION CHECKLIST >>
Untitled Study Related to ‘Shift,’ 1963 Preparatory Drawing For ‘Shift,’ 1963 Study For ‘Turn,’ 1964 Study For ‘Breathe,’ 1965 Static 4, 1966 Cool Greys, Dark Warm Grey Ground, 1966 Red Turquoise Greys (Curve), 1967
Red and Blue to Red and Turquoise Paired (Study For ‘Late Morning 1,’ 1967 Late Morning 1, 1967 Ch’I-Yun, 1974 Shih-Li, 1975 Study for ‘Elegy 2,’ 1978 Series 35 Olive Added to Red and Blue, Violet and Green, Single Reversed Diagonal,1979 Series 41 Violet Added, Blue and Yellow, Green and Red, 1979
Four Colour Study with Black and White,1980 Study for ‘Silvered,’ 1981 Study for ‘Apres Midi,’ 1981 Green, Blue, Red and Yellow, 1982 Serenissima, 1982 Blue Return, 1984 Study 5/9/85, 1985
Temple Music, 1987 June 18 Bassacs ’92, 1992 Study After Cartoon for ‘Reflection’ 7 September,1993 Encounter, 1993 Revision of ‘Genji’ 26 August, 1996 September 18 Bassacs, 1999 Blues and Greens, 2001
December 15, 2002 September 10 Revision of August 28, 2004 August 29 Revision of June 19 Bassacs, 2004 Out There, 2004
SELECTED OPENING IMAGES (by B. Shorb, F. Molnar, M. Carr) >>
Bridget Riley - Opening Bridget Riley - Opening Bridget Riley - Opening Bridget Riley - Opening Bridget Riley - Opening Bridget Riley - Opening Bridget Riley - Opening
Bridget Riley - Opening Bridget Riley - Opening Bridget Riley - Opening Bridget Riley - Opening Bridget Riley - Opening Bridget Riley - Opening Bridget Riley - Opening
ARTIST'S TALK >>
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 4PM BRIDGET RILEY
Since the mid-1960s, Bridget Riley has been celebrated for her distinctive, optically vibrant paintings which actively engage the viewer’s sensations and perceptions, producing visual experiences that are complex and challenging, subtle and arresting.
 
SUNDAY AFTERNOON FILM SERIES >>
SUNDAY AFTERNOON FILM SERIES: THE ART OF BRIDGET RILEY

Films are shown every Saturday and Sunday in September and October.

1:30 PM THE RESPONSIVE EYE, DIRECTOR BRIAN DE PALMA, 1966
This € lm by the well-known director Brian De Palma (Carrie; Scarface; Mission to Mars), commemorates the celebrated Op Art exhibition at New York’s MoMA, which brought international recognition to the young British artist Bridget Riley. De Palma set up his camera to record not only the artwork in the exhibition, but also the reaction on the faces of those who attended it.

2:05 PM BRIDGET RILEY, 1999
Perceptual art is concerned with the effects and processes of what Bridget Riley calls “the great privilege of sight.” We see her working on a painting in her studio, €nding the visual structure which will release complex effects of energy, movement, space, light and “induced” color through the physical act of looking. The € lm shows the inspiration she draws from nature and from the work of such artists as Van Gogh, Seurat, Monet and the Futurists.

2:40 PM THE ARTIST’S EYE: BRIDGET RILEY’S SELECTION FROM THE
NATIONAL GALLERY, 1989
In 1989, Riley was invited to curate an exhibition from the collection of the National Gallery in London. Her selection included paintings by Titian, Veronese, El Greco, Rubens, Poussin and Cézanne. In this € lm, Riley discusses the power of color as a structural element in picture-making and questions central to her own work.
 
MEDIA COVERAGE >>
Metrotimes: More than meets the eye. Cranbrook makes a big deal about Op Art
by Glen Mannisto
9/21/2005

Riley makes abstract paintings that, as she says, “obey the laws of painting ... and paintings are an invented and independent space, separate and apart from nature.” But there is no doubt that she recognizes the energizing of the mind that we all experience when we are in our natural environment. ...

Paintings play tricks on the eye (click for full article)
Bridget Riley's op art illusions pulsate and throb
September 2, 2005BY KERI GUTEN COHEN
FREE PRESS SPECIAL WRITER

Bridget Riley's work is mesmerizing. Period. One look at her paintings and you're hooked, drawn in by the optical illusions that play tricks on your eyes and your brain. Rather than a flat two-dimensional painting on the wall, Riley's work gets physical as your eyes perceive pulsating, throbbing colors, lines and forms that seem to actually move...
CREDITS >>
Cranbrook Art Museum’s 2004-2005 Exhibition Season is generously sponsored by Standard Federal Bank.


The Summer Exhibitions also are presented with the support of the Masco Corporation Foundation and the Museum Committee of Cranbrook Art Museum with individual sponsorships generously provided by Jonathan and Sheri Boos, Maxine and Stuart Frankel through The Maxine and Stuart Frankel Foundation, Ralph and Jeanne Graham through the Clannad Foundation, Stanley and Barbara Grandon, Diane Kirkpatrick, James Nichols, Cathy and James Rosenthal, Jane and Edward Schulak, Gilbert and Lila Silverman, and Pamela Applebaum Wyett.



Cranbrook Art Museum is supported, in part, its Members, the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, the Museum Committee and the fund-raising activities of the Serious Moonlight Steering Committee and the Women's Committee of Cranbrook Academy of Art and Art Museum.



Cranbrook Art Museum is open Wednesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. with extended hours until 9 p.m. the Fourth Friday of each month.

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