Brouillard
Brouillard
Signed Print
Bridget Riley
Screenprint, 1981
Signed Print Edition of 85
H 79cm x W 72cm
Critical Review
This signed screen print was released in 1981 in an edition of 85. Riley manipulates the surface of her canvases through subtle changes in hue, weight, rhythm and density. Choosing careful sequences of colour, Riley explores the subtle effects of each upon the next. Featuring four shades of blue, pink and yellow, as well as black and white, Brouillard, meaning ‘fog’ in French, is electric and vibrant. The colours sing and merge along their vertical interface, dazzling the viewer.
Riley was a master of endless reinvention as she progressively adapted her colour and formal choices throughout her career. Working exclusively in black and white until the late 1960s, upon introducing colours into her work, Riley discovered her scope of experimentation was now somewhat limitless. On her works featuring stripes Riley commented: “If I want to make colour a central issue, I had to give up the complexities of form with which I had been working. In the straight line I had one of the most fundamental forms”. Thus in these works Riley was permitted to delve deeper into exploring colour due to the simplistic compositional form repeated striped offered her.
