Lot 28
  • 28

Bridget Riley, C.H.

Estimate
40,000 - 60,000 GBP
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Description

  • Bridget Riley, C.H.
  • Study for Point Movement 
  • signed and titled
  • pen and ink, gouache and pencil on card
  • 68.5 by 73.5cm.; 27 by 29in.
  • Executed in 1966.

Provenance

Rowan Gallery, London, where acquired by Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe
Gifted to Ann Jellicoe, and thence by descent to the present owner

Condition

Unexamined out of frame. There is a faint horizontal crease to the card just above the lower horizontal edge that runs almost the entire length of the work, and a further smaller crease below, just to the right of centre. There is a faint horizontal crease to the upper left corner and a further smaller crease to the extreme upper left corner, and a small number of minor creases throughout. The upper right corner is very slightly rounded. There are small flecks of surface dirt throughout, visible upon close inspection. Subject to the above, the work appears to be in very good overall condition. The work is presented in a simple perspex box frame. Please telephone the department on +44 207 293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Catalogue Note

'... while drawing I am watching and simultaneously recording myself looking, discovering things that on the one hand are staring me in the face and on the other I have not yet really seen.' (Bridget Riley, 'At the End of My Pencil', London Review of Books, Vol.31, no.19, October 2009, pp.20-21)

The present work was executed during a period of intense creativity for Riley. Her work was gathering acclaim both at home and abroad with her first solo exhibitions at Victor Musgrave's Gallery One in 1962 and 1963, followed by group shows at Tooth’s Gallery and the Walker Art Gallery. In 1964, Riley’s paintings were displayed at several exhibitions which focused on upcoming and emerging artists including the Arts Council of Great Britain’s Six Young Artists, Whitechapel Art Gallery’s The New Generation and even the Young Artists Biennale in Tokyo. Riley's energetic and innovative style of abstraction resonated with the atmosphere of cultural and social liberation in the 1960s and her work informed not only the art world, but also the fashion and design of the period.

Riley's preparatory studies were an essential basis to her work in which formal ideas were explored and progressively refined. It was through these detailed studies that she built up a bank of visual information necessary to ensure the immaculate execution of the final painting. Riley, in an interview with Robert Kudielka, talks of these 'visual statements', which she considered important works in themselves:

'I proceed by trial and error - exploring and slowly establishing a particular situation ... the studies deal with aspects, the painting with totality. The studies are flexible and malleable, whereas the paintings are decisive and finite...' (Bridget Riley, quoted in Bridget Riley Paintings and Drawings 1961-1973, (exh. cat.), The Arts Council of Great Britain, 1973, p.9).

Study for Point Movement demonstrates the methodology and patient research behind the Artist’s early revolutionary black and white paintings. This work lays bare Riley's thought process as we witness her ground breaking investigations into visual phenomena. As the title indicates, Riley's concern here is with movement and more importantly describing movement in visual terms. In these intricate studies, we follow the subtle shifts in the points of simple black triangles which oscillate between elongation and contraction as they rotate progressively forward. These systematic explorations of the scientific theory behind the geometric properties of a triangle can be seen in her fully worked iconic paintings of the time. It is in drawings such as this that we see the depth of enquiry behind the finished paintings. Indeed, there are few other artists who have so thoroughly and successfully engaged in an analysis of the sensation of vision as Bridget Riley. This was to be recognised a couple of years later in 1968 when Riley became not only the first woman but also the first living British artist to win the painter's prize at the Venice Biennale.

The landscape architect, Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe whose clients included King George VI, Lady Anne and Michael Tree and Stanley Seeger, was the first owner of this drawing. A friend of Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson, and a connoisseur of modernism, the groundbreaking ideas present in this work would have been much admired by him.