Bridget RileyBorn 24 April 1931England

Artist – primarily known for Op art

Op art is short for optical art – an art form that is interested in optical illusions

Typically, they give the viewer the impression of movement, hidden images, flashing and vibrating patterns, or of swelling or warping.

Riley studied art at Goldsmith’s College and then the Royal College of Art. After finishing, between 1956 and 1958, she taught art and nursed her father, who had been involved in a serious car crash. She suffered a breakdown.

After this she worked in a glassware shop and also, for a while, taught children. She eventually joined the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency, as an illustrator, where she worked part-time until 1962. The large Whitechapel Gallery exhibition of Jackson Pollock, in the winter of 1958, had a major impact on her.

In the spring of 1962, Riley was given her first solo exhibition.

In 1968 Riley, with Peter Sedgley and the journalist Peter Townsend, created the artists' organisation SPACE (Space Provision Artistic Cultural and Educational), with the goal of providing artists large and affordable studio space

“The music of colour, that’s what I want”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gJooDtCt2I

3 mins.20 secs.

See how to create a piece that looks like Riley’s ‘Blaze’