"Bridget Riley: Reconnaissance"
2000-09-21 until 2001-06-17
Dia Center for the Arts
New York, NY, USA

Bridget Riley's influential paintings from the 1960s and 1970s long ago secured a prominent place in the history of postwar art. Despite this widespread acclaim, Riley's work has been exhibited in the United States only on a very few occasions. With Reconnaissance, to open at Dia Center for the Arts on September 21st, the public will be able to examine a selection from Riley's compelling body of early work in the artist's first solo exhibition to originate in the United States in decades.

Bridget Riley: Reconnaissance, installed on the fourth floor of Dia's exhibition facility at 548 West 22nd Street, will focus on key paintings from the 1960s and 1970s by this British artist. Riley's paintings fuse space, light, and drawing in a complex relationship with color such that perception becomes a medium. Her carefully calibrated shifting of basic geometric forms creates direction, rhythm, and paradoxical relationships of spatial contrast and harmony, constancy and change. Reconnaissance will introduce a new generation to Bridget Riley's intense and subtle oeuvre.

Bridget Riley was born in London where she attended Goldsmith's College and the Royal College of Art. Awarded the International Prize for Painting at the Venice Biennale in 1968, she also holds honorary doctorates from the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge. Since her first solo exhibition in London in 1962, Riley's work has been exhibited widely in Europe, Japan, and Australia. Recent exhibitions include the Hayward Gallery in London in 1992-93 and the Serpentine Gallery last year. In addition, Riley recently installed a large-scale sculpture commissioned by Citibank for their new offices at Canary Wharf in London. Riley currently lives and works in London, Cornwall, and France.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue featuring an essay by John Elderfield and an introduction by Dia curator Lynne Cooke. A lecture in the Robert Lehman Lectures on Contemporary Art series will be devoted to Riley's work. Funding for the exhibition is provided by the Lannan Foundation, The British Council, and the members of the Dia Art Council.

Related Links:

Indepth Arts Resources for the State of New York

Other Important Exhibitions in New York