BRIDGET RILEY (B. 1931)Pass 1981 signed and dated '81 on the turnover edge; signed, titled and dated 1981 on the reverse; signed and titled on the stretcher baroil on linen80 by 70.5 cm.31 1/2 by 27 3/4 in.Footnotes:This work is registered in the Bridget Riley studio, London under no. P8012.ProvenanceJuda Rowan Gallery, London (BR 2) Acquired directly from the above by the previous owner in 1986 Thence by descent to the present ownerLiteratureRobert Kudielka, Alexandra Tommasini, Natalia Naish, Bridget Riley: The Complete Paintings, London 2018, vol. 2, no. BR 214, p. 544, illustrated in colourChromatically arresting, visually alluring and completely fresh to the market, Pass from 1981 embodies Bridget Riley's radical investigations into the optical potential of colour and the complexities of illusion and perception. Riley has produced a prolific, compelling, and technically pristine body of work over the course of her extraordinary career; an oeuvre that was in 2019 the subject of a highly lauded retrospective at the National Galleries of Scotland and the Hayward Gallery. Today, her works are held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Tate Gallery in London, and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, to name but a few.Hypnotically evading perspectival resolution, the films of colour as seen in this present work recede and advance into illusory space, extending the abstract field of vision beyond the flat picture plane. Such dramatic visual effects anointed Riley as the undisputed spearhead of the Op Art movement. Nevertheless, her preoccupation with the mechanical contingencies of colour, and the sensory and perceptive effects that can be produced through constructing a rational architecture of form in which colour resides, extend Riley's impact and influence on contemporary painting far beyond the confines of a single movement. Maintaining an unparalleled relationship to the formal, 'plastic' concerns of painting inherited from the likes of Seurat, Paul Klee and Piet Mondrian, Riley has developed a pictorial language that is remarkably unique. Riley explains that 'by plastic I mean that which hangs between the cognitive reading of an image and its perception. If one looks at the painting there is clearly a gap between the mythic illusion which one can 'read' and the immediacy of the sensations one experiences through the sense of sight' (the artist in conversation with R. Kudielka, The Artist's Eye: Bridget Riley, London, 1989, p. 13).Pass belongs to a group of works that were inspired by a trip to Egypt that Riley made in the winter of 1979–80. This excursion was to have a lasting effect on the artist, inspiring her work for over a decade. Following this trip, Riley's palette became brighter, bolder, and more intensified. Paul Moorhouse explains, 'During that trip she visited the Nile Valley and the museum at Cairo, and was able to study, at first hand, the tombs of the later Pharaohs in the Valley of the Kings. Riley was astonished by the art she found in these ancient burial sites carved out of rock and located deep in the earth. These sacred places were dedicated to the dead, yet the tomb decoration was a vivid evocation of life and light. Though their creators had used only a limited number of colours - red, blue, yellow, turquoise, green, black and white - the walls of the chambers receded behind images in which could be seen a bustling affirmation of everyday existence. In looking at the art and craft of Ancient Egypt in the Cairo Museum, Riley recognised that the same colours had been used in all aspects of the Egyptians' material lives, from the decorative to the purely functional' (Paul Moorhouse, Bridget Riley, London, 2003, p. 22).In a spectacular rhythm of blue, red, orange, and white, Pass engenders a harmonious structure that is analogous with the relationship between the component parts of a piece of music. This aggregation of high and low tones, of loud and quiet pitches, creates a field of vision that hums with a warm, self-generated glow. For Riley, suspending incongruent colours and polarising frameworks is the essence of aesthetic harmony: 'this could sound like a paradox', she writes, 'but only if one thinks in logical terms. In painting, it seems to me, contrast is the basic relationship. Even that which appears to be harmony is actually a harmony of contrasts, be they spatial, directional, chromatic, tonal, etc.' (Bridget Riley in conversation with Robert Kudielka in Robert Kudielka on Bridget Riley: Essays and interviews 1972-2003, London 2005, p. 96). In the present work, Riley composes a melodic unity through bands of colour that refract and funnel a cacophony of shifting sightlines between its vertical linearity. An exemplary work of pulsating geometry and colour, Riley's Pass is a compelling vision of abstract painting's closeness to human perception.Born in London in 1931; Riley studied at Goldsmiths College from 1949 to 1952, and at the Royal College of Art from 1952 to 1955. Finding notoriety in the 1960's, her prestige and influence on contemporary art remains decisively steadfast, while her extensive body of work continues to garner discussion in a contemporary context. Citing Georges Seurat as a point of reference, Riley's early output of work played with Pointillism and Impressionism to examine the interaction of colour and form to create light and depth. The Pointillist painter had sought to introduce light into the canvas through dots of pure colour, carefully placed either for contrast or harmony to intensify both their individual power and the overall effect. Similarly, Riley developed a mode of painting that employed the repetition of individual colours in geometric patterns and, in the case of this present work, vertical lines. The lines surpass and transcend their own limitations, and work together to achieve a greater luminosity. Cultivating her technique to explore total abstraction, Riley soon came to hone her optical style, creating dizzying canvases where depth and visual stimuli emanated from the delicate positioning of vertical and linear lines. Initially working with a largely monochrome palette, Riley's first solo exhibition at Gallery One in 1962 soon led to a string of international shows early in her career, including exhibiting in the Museum of Modern Art, New York, a solo exhibition in 1966, and prizes such as the AICA Critics Prize and John Moores' Liverpool Open Section in 1963. In 1968 she represented Britain at the Venice Biennale, receiving the International Prize for Painting. It is true to say that Bridget Riley's continued exploration of optics and colour have afforded her the reputation as one of the most internationally recognisable abstract artists today.This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: ARAR Goods subject to Artists Resale Right Additional Premium.For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com
