05th October 2009. Bridget Riley Exhibition at the Walker art gallery.

She displays her work in a organised manner. Her small pieces and technical development of her work are all framed. Framing the work allows the viewer to realise what is her process work and her final pieces. The process work is quite messy, there are lots of pencil lines and scribbles. The process work is allowed to be messy. Lots of cut up paper are arranged and overlapped before she goes onto her final work. I noticed that her development of her ideas are created over several years. The only reason i can think she has done this, is because she may have more than one idea or process on the go.

She arranges her work by it's colours. The black and white pieces are grouped together and the striped works are grouped together. Two paintings relatively the same size face eachother in the gallery. One is quite rough edged, multicoloured and busy whereas the opposite one is quite calm, curved and less coloured. Her work hangs at different levels. Her work has been hung so it's straight but not so it's perfectly in line with all the work.

Because the room is large and well lit the works are not overcrowded. Her work is labelled underneath or beside her work. She includes the date, title, and the medium used. she also labels her work as collection of the artist or private collection. I am unsure what these two terms mean, therefore i am going to research this to find out. Only her final pieces have barries. They are based on the floor. A lot of artist's don't put there development of work on show. maybe they don't as they only want to show their final outcomes. Bridget Riley proves she used a system to develop her ideas, She drafts, develops and then finally produces her work.

There is limited furniture in the room, there is only two benches which are rather small. Because of this if there were lots of people attending the exhibition there would be nowhere for them to sit. Therefore they don't have much choice but to stand and look at the work rather than be relaxed and seated. Maybe this gallery does not have a lot of furniture in the room as it is trying to look contemporary and modern like the Tate for example. I don't think i have ever saw a bench in any of the Tate's exhibitions, this most likely applies to other modern and contemporary galleries/museums.

Bridget Riley. Writen and directed by David Thomson 1979. Funded by the Arts council of Great Britain. 28 minutes. Video.

The video is a major help to understand her work, her intentions, her works development and ideas. I took down notes as i watched the film.

The pattern has movement. colour.....what is it's shape, form, movement, space?
Paint behaves as light does. You can't force colour into pattern. How do you organise space and colour? The distance you look at the painting creates a different view. Every person even with normal vision will see the illusion in the painting differently. Try colours out, she get's help to do this. Colours look darker or lighter. Maximum juxtaposition. Showing and giving the paintings to the world is like pushing a boat out to sea. Possibilities of vision. What looking feels like. The eye is precise. It looks asthough the ripples and waves, rhythm, patterns, curves, form of the sea (water) is a major influence in her work. Repetition, rhythm, slower, faster, tighten, release, breath, expand, narrow, energy. The eye is confused instead it feels the energy and movement. Colour as light and colour as paint. Her main influences are Monet and Seurat. Colour does not have direction. Looking at it at different distances, each eye see's the painting differentley. Binocular vision.