Piet Mondrian had a decisive influence on the development of painting from figuration to abstraction. On the occasion of his 150th birthday, Mondrian Evolution is dedicated to his multifaceted work and artistic development. Initially working in the tradition of Dutch landscape painting of the late 19th century, Symbolism and Cubism subsequently took on great significance for him. It was not until the early 1920s that the artist focused on a wholly non-representational pictorial vocabulary, limited to the rectangular arrangement of black lines with surfaces in white and the primary colors blue, red and yellow. In separate chapters, this path is traced through motifs such as windmills, dunes, and the sea, farms reflected in the water, and plants in various forms of abstraction.

“I am sometimes asked ‘What is your objective’ and this I cannot truthfully answer. I work ‘from’ something rather than ‘towards’ something. It is a process of discovery.” Since 1961, Riley has focused exclusively on seemingly simple geometric forms, such as lines, circles, curves, and squares, arrayed across a surface—whether a canvas, wall, or paper—according to an internal logic. The resulting compositions actively engage the viewer, at times triggering sensations of vibration and movement. In the present selection, Riley advances her Measure by Measure series, her most extensive body of work to date, into a new, darker color palette. Once again, changing the way we look and offering a powerful effect on our eyes. This sense of dynamism was explored to great effect in the artist’s earliest black-and-white paintings, which established the basis of her enduring formal vocabulary. In 2020, after visiting her own earlier works at her retrospective exhibition organized by the National Galleries of Scotland, Riley returned to black-and-white lozenges, adjusting the orientation of each shape to create a new visual sensation. In 1967, Riley introduced colour into her work, thus expanding the perceptual and optical possibilities of her compositions. Published on the occasion of the 2021 exhibition at David Zwirner, London, this monograph features new scholarship on the artist by art historian Éric de Chassey, who looks at how Riley’s past, as well as previous artists, has led to this body of work.

In 1959, Bridget Riley's copy of Georges Seurat's Bridge at Courbevoie (1886-87) offered the artist a new understanding of colour and tone, which led her to produce her first major works of pure abstraction during the early 1960s. In 2015-16, an exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery, London, presented seven of Riley's paintings and this key Pointillist work by Seurat from the museum's collection. Brought together for the first time, the exhibition demonstrated the two artists' shared preoccupation with perception by looking at pivotal points throughout Riley's career. Alongside full-colour illustrations, this publication features two essays written by Riley that offer the artist's insights on Seurat's importance to her own practice. An interview with the artist by Eric de Chassey, complemented by an introductory text by Karen Serres and Barnaby Wright, make this an important resource for art historians and general readers alike.

First published to accompany a 2011 exhibition, this catalogue features three new paintings that bring Bridget Riley's exploration of the circle from the wall to the canvas, and from black and white to colour. By placing Riley's new paintings in relation to her early gouaches, this publication highlights new directions taken by the famous British artist. Through the layering of circles of yellow and orange in her exploration of interplaying colours, Riley asks the viewer's eye to continuously adjust as the shapes grow, compress and dance across the canvas. Full-colour illustrations are accompanied by a conversation between Riley and Robert Kudielka from 1978, in which the artist discusses her move away from the blacks, greys and whites of her 1960s works and towards the use of the curve 'as a rhythmic vehicle for colour'.

Bridget Riley's paintings are developed carefully over time, the result of methodically working through pictorial variables such as colour, tone, scale, and rhythm. Studies are central to this process, allowing Riley to concentrate on the analysis and synthesis that lie at the heart of her working practice. Riley says, 'Because my work is based on enquiry, studies are my chief method of exploration and my way into paintings' (2005). This volume richly illustrates the thinking that goes into Riley's work through a selection of over 150 drawings, colour analyses, notations, scale studies and cartoons, most of which were exhibited at the artist's recent seminal retrospective exhibitions in Edinburgh and London from 2019 to 2020 organized by the National Galleries of Scotland. The selection spans most of Riley's working life, tracing the origins and evolving nature of her remarkable body of work. Riley's beginnings are also documented through selected childhood drawings, work made during and immediately following her studies at Goldsmiths' College and the Royal College of Art, and her early explorations into abstraction. The artist's working method is brought into high relief in a newly commissioned conversation with Riley and Sir John Leighton, Director of the National Galleries of Scotland. The text explores the cardinal moments in the artist's practice and the impulses that bring her work into existence. The volume also includes four previously published texts dedicated to Riley's studies and practice written by the artist herself, art historians, curators and museum directors, which shed further light on the enduring role of drawing and the process of exploration central to her work. With over 200 illustrations

Bridget Riley has made screenprints throughout her career, extending the principles of her paintings into a new, reproducible medium. Bringing together the complete, updated inventory of this substantial body of work, this volume explores Riley's development as a printmaker and her relationship to the screenprint medium. Newly revised, updated and designed, this catalogue raisonne richly illustrates Bridget Riley's graphic work in a larger, enhanced format. Alongside a full-colour inventory of the prints are updated essays by Lynn MacRitchie and Craig Hartley and an additional essay by Robert Kudielka, which provide a greater context for Riley's work. This revised volume, a co-publication with The Bridget Riley Art Foundation, also benefits from supplemental material including an artist biography and selected solo and group exhibition history.

This landmark book reflects on almost 70 years of works by Bridget Riley (b.1931), from some of her earliest to very recent projects, providing a unique record of the work of an artist still very much at the height of her powers. Essays from leading scholars and commentators on Riley's work will make this title the authority on Riley's practice. In the last decade, Riley has continued to push her practice considerably, producing several large-scale site-specific wall paintings as well as continuing to develop new paintings. This book will explore these recent developments. It will also examine the notable influence that other artists such as Georges Seurat and Piet Mondrian have had on Riley's work.