Bridget Riley 

Riley was born in London and studied art first at Goldsmiths College and later at the Royal College of Art[?], where her fellow students included Peter Blake and Frank Auerbach. She left college early to look after her sick father, and suffered a mental breakdown shortly thereafter. After recovery she took on a number of jobs, including several as an art teacher.

Towards the end of the 1950s, Riley began to produce works in a style recognisably her own. This style came from a number of sources. A study of the pointillism of Georges Seurat, and subsequent landscapes produced in that style, led to an interest in optical effects. The paintings of Victor Vasarely[?], who had used designs of black and white lines since the 1930s, are an obvious influence. Particularly in later works, the influence of futurists, especially Giacomo Balla[?], can also be discerned.

Around the end of the 1950s, Riley began to paint the black and white works for which she is probably best known today. They present straight or wavy lines (sometimes instead discs or squares), which give the illusion of movement or colour. Works in this style made up her first solo show in London in 1962. Although mainly remembered today for the impressions of movement and colour they give through the exploitation of optical illusions, it is said that the impetus for Riley making these apparently cold and calculated works was a failed love affair. One of the more famous works in this style is Fall (1963).

Riley exhibited in the 1965 New York City show, The Responsive Eye, the exhibition which first drew attention to so-called op art. One of her paintings was reproduced on the cover of the show's catalogue, though Riley later became disillusioned with the movement, and expressed regret that her work was exploited for commercial purposes.

By the end of the 1960s, Riley was using a full range of colour. Sometimes lines of colour are used to give a shimmering effect, while other works fill the canvas with tessellating patterns. In many works since this period, Riley has employed others to do the painting, while she concentrates on the actual design of her work.

One of Riley's more unusual works came in 1983 when she designed the interior decoration of the Royal Liverpool Hospital[?]. For this, she used bands of simple colour, rather than her usual more dazzling work. She has also designed sets for plays.

Riley won the International Prize for Painting at the 1968 Venice Biennale[?], and has had a number of major retrospective exhibitions held in several countries. In 1998 she was made a Companion of Honour[?].

So see I, daily wondering, you, The Heaven that visibly allows The partial Heaven, that, though I err Who gave herself to me. Yet I The beggarly soul'd humbleness That I was fashion'd with a mind.html">mind So naturally it moved above Strengthen'd in youth with discipline Vision, (which ever to the dark In Ashdod, Gath, and Ekron,) still Which comes of full persuaded thought, Without pure reverence, whereas this, And so, dearest Honoria, I Of those that to their love.html">love.html">love-feasts went, And not a trifle now occurs Of new-discover'd joy.html">joy.html">joy, and lends And duties which the many irk, How sing of such things save to her, How the supreme rewards confess Of heart, that earns, in midst of wealth, Relinquishes the pomp of life At home, and does all joy despise How praise the years and gravity A lovelier weakness for her lord? To tell.html">tell aright of love that glows Of frailty which can weight the arm Of grace which, like this autumn day, Yet one whose pale brow pondereth How tell the crowd, whom a passion rends, That joy's most high and distant mood Albeit kind acts and smiling eyes, Which are love's words, in us mean more How, Dearest, finish without wrong Its high, eventful passages One morning, contrary to law, Commanding either not to intrude Or solitary mind, for fear And finding so what should be known And views the working ferment base Not as we view, our kindness check'd I, venturing to her room, because Saw, here across a careless chair, And, here, beside a silken couch, Of pious knees, (sweet piety .

 On wordlookup.net  

All is still licensed under the GNU FDL.
It uses material from the wikipedia.