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Bridget Riley: Paintings 1963-2015

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern One), Edinburgh
April 15th-April 17th 2017

Of all the iconic images of the 1960s, few evoked the grooviness of swinging London more than those by Bridget Riley. Riley's hallucinatory array of black and white Op-art checks and geometric shapes shimmered their way into a two-tone styled mod culture mainstream which, more than half a century on, is as indicative of a moment as much as it was fleeting.

Like her paintings, Riley too has kept moving, as this major show of work spanning those fifty years should demonstrate. Centred around Riley's 1966 painting, 'Over', which has been held by the SNGoMA since 1974, this collection of major paintings draws from a back catalogue of rarely seen works. Seen together, they reveal how, just as TV and popular culture morphed from monochrome to technicolour, Riley embarked on a very personal trip, from London to France, Egypt and beyond, absorbing influences as she went.

With Riley having recently come full circle in terms of working in black and white once more, this major show demonstrates how over the last fifty years she has coloured her world beyond shades of grey.

The List, April 2016
ends

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