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 is one of the most important British painters of our time. Since the early 1960s, when she first gained recognition with her powerful black and white paintings, the artist has continued to explore the principles of abstraction in startling and original ways. Through her systematic engagement with colour, tone, form and structure, Riley pushes the boundaries of perception, challenging us to look at the world anew. This landmark publication brings together for the first time all of Bridget Riley's known paintings, including well over 650 works ranging from the late 1940s to 2017. Each painting is illustrated with a full-page colour image, many of which have been sourced from the artist's extensive archive and rarely published. Drawing on archival research and expert knowledge, the publication includes an introductory essay, explanation of materials and methods, extended exhibition history, biographical information and explanatory notes. The publication benefits from the remarkable input of Bridget Riley herself, who has been present at every stage of the project and has provided first-hand information about her work and exhibition and sales history. Bridget Riley: The Complete Paintings is a seminal visual resource and provides the most comprehensive overview of the artist's paintings to date.

During the mid-1980s, Riley introduced a new pictorial device, the rhomboid, to her then predominantly vertical stripes, developing her exploration of interplaying tones of green, yellow and orange. This allowed the artist to construct new visual relationships between divergent colours and forms, creating what she terms a 'harmony of contrasts' that animates the entire visual field. Tracking a transitional period in Riley's career, the works on paper in this volume - studies produced between 1984 and 1995 - shift from a focus on the vertical stripe to increasingly complex diagonal compositions. Illustrated in full colour, the works are accompanied by a historic interview with the artist by Robert Kudielka and a text by Riley's archivists Natalia Naish and Alexandra Tommasini, situating these studies in relation to major paintings produced during this period.