To Midsummer
To Midsummer
Signed Print
Bridget Riley
Screenprint, 1989
Signed Print Edition of 100
H 92cm x W 93cm
Critical Review
This signed screen print by Bridget Riley was released in 1989 in an edition of 100.
Taking inspiration from nature to compose this vibrant, warming colour palette, consisting of green, yellow, orange and blue, Riley replicates the changes in light and colour of a summer sky. In To Midsummer, the iconic stripe of Riley’s earlier work is transformed, becoming a more complex geometric shape that further expanded the artist’s scope for experimenting with the varying effects of form and colour. Ultimately, this new form serves several functions: “they can change scale, harmonise or contrast with one another, repeat, echo,’create places’, etc.”
Across her career, Riley’s work continually shifts stylistically. From 1961 to 1964, Riley worked exclusively in black and white, introducing tonal greys in the late 1960s, and expanding this to a full spectrum of colour in 1967. Starting exclusively with lines in 1967, Riley then adapted these into the diagonal shapes we see in this collection. In the 1990s these forms were developed further into curvilinear forms with segments weaving across the canvases. Thus, To Midsummer represents a significant stage in Riley’s continuously developing artistic career.
