Bridget Riley is perhaps the only British Op Artist the general public would recognise, maybe even name. Best known for her often eye-popping geometric works, she has had a long and varied career that has gone through several stages including figurative, Impressionist and Pointillist.
Rather amazingly, this is the first book to collect and illustrate her preparatory work and, therefore, to offer an insight into the way her pieces develop. It includes sketches, outlines and preparatory pieces – as she puts it herself: “Studies are my chief method of exploration and way into my paintings”. Most of the illustrations are uncommented, but the book includes texts from various points in her career that explain Riley’s background and development as well as interviews from 2005, 2011 and a new one, specially commissioned for the book.
There is plenty of material here and the overall sense is of a job well done – that this is a complete survey rather than a first footing. Some of the reproduction does seem a little coarse, although that may be down to what material was available. The colour also seems sometimes a little flat and Thames and Hudson are normally good at getting as effective a result as possible on matt paper. £45 is not a trivial sum, but it is excellent value considering what is included and one should perhaps not quibble.
Click the picture to view on Amazon
Artbookreview.net 