Bridget Riley: Cosmos

Bridget Riley’s paintings require our active participation – there’s no chance of uninvolved viewing either from a distance or closer up. 

Cosmos is Christchurch Art Gallery’s new wall painting, and the fourth of five major works acquired to mark our extended time of closure following the Canterbury earthquakes of 2010–11. It is accompanied by an exhibition that summarises some sixty years of committed practice by this internationally-acclaimed English artist, from a 1959 copy of Georges Seurat’s Le Pont de Courbevoie to her newest painting made for Christchurch.

Highly individual and richly imbued with lessons from her respected forebears, we reveal a lifetime of continuous experimentation within self-imposed limits.

Image Credits:
Installation view of Bridget Riley: Cosmos, 3 June - 12 November 2017. Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu. © Bridget Riley 2017. All rights reserved. 
Bridget Riley Cosmos 2016–17. Acrylic. Collection Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu, acquired through the Christchurch Art Gallery Foundation with the generous help of Heather Boock; Ros Burdon; Kate Burtt; Dame Jenny Gibbs; Ann de Lambert and daughters, Sarah, Elizabeth, Diana, and Rachel; Barbara, Lady Stewart; Gabrielle Tasman; Jenny Todd; Nicky Wagner; and the Wellington Women’s Group (est. 1974). © Bridget Riley 2017. All rights reserved.