Elysium
Riley is often associated with the Op Art movement of the mid-1960s, characterized by simple lines and forms, usually in repetitive patterns, that create illusion of movement. She arrived at Elysium’s optical effect by doing rigorous work in 1973 with exquisite small-scale maquettes to explore the interplay of red, blue, and green alternating with white. Personal circumstances forestalled for three decades her exact translation of these studies into the final large-scale painting, in which vertical stripes in a perfectly calibrated sequence emanate a rolling but controlled vibration of colored light. Elysium is a modern evocation of the paradise invoked by its title, an abstract interpretation of the pastoral.
Artwork Details
- Title: Elysium
- Artist: Bridget Riley (British, born London, 1931)
- Date: 2003/1973
- Medium: Acrylic on canvas
- Dimensions: 102 3/4 in. × 92 15/16 in. (261 × 236 cm)
- Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, 2016
- Object Number: 2016.117
- Rights and Reproduction: © Bridget Riley
- Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art
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Bridget Riley
April 21, 1966
Bridget Riley
1973
Bridget Riley
1973
Bridget Riley
1973
Bridget Riley
1973
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