BRIDGET RILEY

(B. 1931)

Myrrh

Footnotes

Provenance
Juda Rowan Gallery, London.
Private Collection, Los Angeles.
Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert, London.
Acquired from the above by the present owner.

Exhibited
San Francisco, Berggruen Gallery, The Interactive Character of Color, 1970-2014, 27 April - 30 June 2016.

Literature
R. Kudielka, A. Tommasini & N. Naish (eds.), Bridget Riley, The Complete Paintings, Vol. II, 1974-1997, London, 2018, no. BR 286 (illustrated p. 725).



Executed in 1985, Bridget Riley's Myrrh stands as an ode to the wonders of human perception and a celebration of colour's emotive and optical power. Belonging to the artist's renowned Egyptian Series, Myrrh was created in the year which marked the culmination of this series, and is a striking example of the artist's mastery of colour and optical dynamism. In the present work, thin strips in vibrant shades recede and advance into illusory space extending the abstract field of vision beyond the picture plane and encapsulating the artist's precise and innovative visual language.

The Egyptian Series, which Riley developed between 1980-1985, emerged from a formative journey to Egypt in the winter of 1979-1980; a visit which profoundly shaped the artist's creative trajectory. During this visit, she explored the Nile Valley, the Cairo Museum, and the tombs of the later Pharaohs in the Valley of the Kings. The experience left a lasting mark on her artistic vision. The tomb decorations, though hidden deep within spaces meant for the dead, radiated life and pulsed with an unexpected vitality; their walls, adorned with striking imagery, seemed to transcend time, capturing the movement and rhythm of everyday life. Despite relying on a limited palette of red, blue, yellow, turquoise, green, black, and white, the ancient artists infused their work with an extraordinary sense of dynamism. Riley was captivated by how these same colours wove through every facet of Egyptian life, seamlessly bridging the functional and the decorative. While back in London, Riley's fascination with the colours she had seen in Egypt continued, and thus she began her new exploration of work.

As she began to explore this new, so-called Egyptian Palette, it was clear that fundamental structural changes to her work would be required. Having focused on linear movement throughout the 1970s, in the 1980s Riley returned to a graphic simplicity reminiscent of her earlier black-and-white compositions of the 1960s, using the vertical line and a variety of vibrant colours that infused her compositions with a new rhythm and energy. The admission of a range of intense colours requested a more minimal vehicle than the curve she had been using the previous 6 years, hence the return to a more neutral form – the stripe. By meticulously placing vertical stripes of equal width flush next to each other, Riley found that colour is not an independent unit, but rather that one colour contributes and interacts with another. As Paul Moorhouse stated 'The composition of the works is therefore additive in the musical sense of individual units being drawn into an experience that unfolds in time. But parallel to this, their composition also relates to the moulding and shaping of discrete units of visual sensation so that they simultaneously inhabit and create a virtual space.' (Paul Moorhouse, Bridget Riley, London, 2003, p. 22).

In the present work, each hue asserts its own presence while simultaneously being transformed by its neighbouring tones; vibrant yellow becomes luminescent beside magentas and pale blues, whilst olive green engages in a dynamic push and pull between coral and pale pink. The precise alignment of colours in Myrrh is not merely an exercise in formal arrangement but an exploration of visual sensation. Here, Riley gracefully combines the rigid logic of early colour theory with a complete painterly engagement with the surface of the canvas, resulting in a visual sensation that oscillates between the 'plastic' neutrality of the stripe and the optical brilliance of her colour palette. Thus, the transition back into the stripe motif in 1980, acted as both a stabilising force and a vehicle for chromatic experimentation, occupying her for the next 5 years.

Executed in the final year of her Egyptian Series, the balance in the present work between structure and fluidity reaches its peak with the saturated hues engaging in a dialogue of weight, density, brilliance and opacity. By 1985, Riley had moved away from her original palette and removed black and white altogether, resulting in the rich, booming brilliance exemplified in Myrrh. Drawing from the artistic legacy of ancient Egypt, as well as a myriad of art-historical references derives from the artist's encyclopaedic knowledge and critical observation; here Riley translates historical inspiration into a contemporary language of abstraction. Myrrh exemplifies her ability to harness colour and form in a way that both challenges and delights the viewer's eye, embodying her belief that painting should be a dynamic, interactive experience.

Inspired by the 'all-over' canvases of the Abstract Expressionists – characterised by a complete coverage of the entire canvas surface with paint, lacking a single focal point and instead directing the viewer's eye across the entire composition – Riley refined their multi-focal vernacular into her own visual language. In Myrrh, Riley has masterfully made a medium of perception, allowing the viewer to experience the finished work as both that which is seen and as an act of seeing. As the eye moves across the painting, it experiences rhythmic pulsation across the canvas, from moments of tension to intervals of release. As Riley describes, 'Colours are organised on the canvas so that the eye can travel over the surface in a way parallel to the way it moves over nature. It should feel caressed and soothed, experience frictions and ruptures, glide and drift. Vision can be arrested, tripped up or pulled back in order to float free again.' (Bridget Riley, "The Pleasures of Sight (1984)", in Exh. Cat., London, Tate Britain, Bridget Riley, 2003, p. 213). This poetic articulation of visual movement is at the core of Myrrh, making it not just an optical experiment but a deeply sensorial experience.

Born in London in 1931, Bridget Riley has been a pioneering force in the realm of abstract and optical art. Her early studies at Goldsmiths College and the Royal College of Art introduced her to the works of Georges Seurat, whose detailed study of colour relationships greatly influenced her to develop her own technique, utilising geometric patterns, repetition, and optical precision to achieve an unparalleled luminosity. In 1959, Riley painted a copy of Seurat's Bridge at Courbevoie from 1886-1887, which proved to be a fundamental experience for the artist, allowing her to obtain a better understanding of colour and perception. Over 20 years later, Riley still looked to Seurat, although now refining his fundamental principles of colour experimentation by stripping away all figuration, while simultaneously preserving the dynamic interplay between colours.

Riley's first solo exhibition at Gallery One in 1962 led to a string of international shows early in her career, including exhibiting in the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and prizes such as the AICA Critics Prize and John Moores' Liverpool Open Section in 1963. In 1968, she represented Britain alongside Philip King at the Venice Biennale, where she was the first British living painter to receive the International Prize for Painting. By the 1980s, Riley had already completed a major two-year touring retrospective across America, Australia, and Asia.

Riley's masterful exploration of optics and colour has afforded the artist a reputation as one of the most internationally applauded abstract artists today. Her prestige and influence on contemporary art remains decisively steadfast, while her radical body of work continues to influence and fascinate viewers and artists alike in a contemporary context. Viewers can experience the transformation of a seemingly simple arrangement of stripes into a radiant, pulsating field of energy. Today, standing in front of Myrrh continues to be as powerful and transformative as it would have been at its year of execution.